Hi all, this is my first post, I know I'm not in new member introductions, but I'm kind of at my wits end with this. We have had chickens for about 2.5 years now, and had to replace part of our flock (6 chickens and a rooster) when a neighbors dog went through them while they were out free-ranging. Our re-constituted flock consisted of a bantam rooster, 4 bantam hens, and 2 silkies from our original flock. Once the new birds had been integrated and had been together for roughly 6 months, we lost one. Not sure why, it was fairly sudden, came out to the hen house and she was dead. Watched the rest of the flock for signs of distress, nothing seemed wrong, so we chalked it up as an oddity and continued on.
About three months later, we lost another one, same MO. Both of them expired with their heads bent forward all the way to their chest. I started looking up what could be causing this, the most likely cause seemed like it might be wry neck, but with how sudden it was, there was no way to observe the birds prior to their passing.
Roughly 3 months after that, I caught one of the chickens acting odd, looking up at the sky, stretched neck, not quite keeping up with the group, and it seemed like her vent was straining. I thought possibly egg bound, so I checked her vent with my pinkie, no obstruction. I started her on supplemental vitamins fed via syringe, 6ccs twice a day. She continued to deteriorate, developed ataxia, and roughly 5 days after I noticed the first symptoms, she died. The vitamins seemed to help, but apparently only prolonged her suffering. 8 weeks ago I lost another hen to the same circumstances, and today I lost my rooster, and he only showed symptoms two days ago.
I performed a necropsy on the rooster, there was nothing that I noted as odd. He did have runny stool, and his vent was a mess, but internally everything seemed normal. No worms that I could see in the intestines, nothing odd in the stomach contents, heart muscle looked good.
The chickens are generally aloud to free-range for at least a few hours every day, if not all day. There is grit available to them at all times, oyster shell is added to their food. Currently have added a pelletized de-wormer to their food. Yesterday I emptied the coop, hosed everything out, left the surfaces damp and applied bleach in a 1:1 mixture via pump sprayer and coated every interior inch of the coop. I let it dwell for 15 minutes, hosed everything out again, dried the coop and put fresh bedding in. I don't know what else I can do, I have antibiotics on the way, but due to shipping delays with COVID, they didn't make it here in time to help my rooster. Is there some simple piece of knowledge I'm missing? I'm down to 1 bantam/silkie cross and my two original silkies, and I'm sick and tired of losing birds. Odd thing of note, the silkies seem to be totally unaffected, they are always happy and energetic, and whatever this issue is seems to skip them. Any help is appreciated, I will try and fill any gaps in information that I can.
About three months later, we lost another one, same MO. Both of them expired with their heads bent forward all the way to their chest. I started looking up what could be causing this, the most likely cause seemed like it might be wry neck, but with how sudden it was, there was no way to observe the birds prior to their passing.
Roughly 3 months after that, I caught one of the chickens acting odd, looking up at the sky, stretched neck, not quite keeping up with the group, and it seemed like her vent was straining. I thought possibly egg bound, so I checked her vent with my pinkie, no obstruction. I started her on supplemental vitamins fed via syringe, 6ccs twice a day. She continued to deteriorate, developed ataxia, and roughly 5 days after I noticed the first symptoms, she died. The vitamins seemed to help, but apparently only prolonged her suffering. 8 weeks ago I lost another hen to the same circumstances, and today I lost my rooster, and he only showed symptoms two days ago.
I performed a necropsy on the rooster, there was nothing that I noted as odd. He did have runny stool, and his vent was a mess, but internally everything seemed normal. No worms that I could see in the intestines, nothing odd in the stomach contents, heart muscle looked good.
The chickens are generally aloud to free-range for at least a few hours every day, if not all day. There is grit available to them at all times, oyster shell is added to their food. Currently have added a pelletized de-wormer to their food. Yesterday I emptied the coop, hosed everything out, left the surfaces damp and applied bleach in a 1:1 mixture via pump sprayer and coated every interior inch of the coop. I let it dwell for 15 minutes, hosed everything out again, dried the coop and put fresh bedding in. I don't know what else I can do, I have antibiotics on the way, but due to shipping delays with COVID, they didn't make it here in time to help my rooster. Is there some simple piece of knowledge I'm missing? I'm down to 1 bantam/silkie cross and my two original silkies, and I'm sick and tired of losing birds. Odd thing of note, the silkies seem to be totally unaffected, they are always happy and energetic, and whatever this issue is seems to skip them. Any help is appreciated, I will try and fill any gaps in information that I can.
