2 chickens died within week

[mycindysfarm]

Hi. I had a chicken start laying around then died within 24 hours. Now about a week later another one acting the same, laying around, and died today. No coughing, wheezing, no worms, they are both young and have not started laying yet. when the one died to today I did an "exam" which is be basicly me looking at the chicken. When I held her brown muddy stuff came out of here mouth, she had just stopped breathing at this point. I have no idea what this can be and how to protect my other girls. I would have isolated the sick birds, but it happened so fast. One second they seem a little tired, the next they are dead.
I have started giving everyone electrolites and vitamins in there water yesterday. I don't know what else to do. I read something about sour crop. But could do chickens get the same thing. Should I check all 30 others?

thanks for any input.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Hi. I had a chicken start laying around then died within 24 hours. Now about a week later another one acting the same, laying around, and died today. No coughing, wheezing, no worms, they are both young and have not started laying yet. when the one died to today I did an "exam" which is be basicly me looking at the chicken. When I held her brown muddy stuff came out of here mouth, she had just stopped breathing at this point. I have no idea what this can be and how to protect my other girls. I would have isolated the sick birds, but it happened so fast. One second they seem a little tired, the next they are dead.
I have started giving everyone electrolites and vitamins in there water yesterday. I don't know what else to do. I read something about sour crop. But could do chickens get the same thing. Should I check all 30 others?

thanks for any input.

Heat, Maybe?? How was their body weight? Was their breast boney? I have picked up chickens that were so light that they felt hollow---hardly no weight. I had one to die, then in a few days another one----they were eat up with tape worms.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry for your loss

Since you have had 2 die in a very short period of time, I would recommend that you have a necropsy performed. This will let you know if it's something that can be corrected and prevented in the future or if your girls simply succumbed to disease or internal/developmental disorder.

It's possible they both died from heat stroke, but you may also want to check your feed for any mold, your property for anything dead (animal with maggots) and consider that they could have gotten into something toxic - fertilizer, weed killer, rat poison, etc.

When chickens die, there can be liquids that come out of the beak - but it's a good idea to check the crops of your remaining flock. It would be unusual for 2 to die with crop issues in such short time. Check the crops at night, the crop should be full or have food in it. Check again first thing in the morning before eating/drinking, the crop should be flat or empty. Most chickens can find an adequate source of grit in the soil, but it doesn't hurt make poultry grit (crushed granite) available free choice.

Giving the electrolytes and vitamins for a few days would be fine. Then offer them a couple of times a week. If your weather is hot, then try to provide cool water as much as you can and have some shady areas for them.

Here's a link to NJ state diagnostic labs in case you decide to send your girl for necropsy: http://www.nj.gov/agriculture/ahdl/

 

[mycindysfarm]

It has been very hot here. Going up to 92 today. They have a lot of shade and many different clean waters around. I will try giving them some grit, it is sandy here. I will also check all the feed. Their weight seemed normal to me. I'm going to go look around and see if I can find anything that doesn't look right.

 

[PD-Riverman]

OMG!!! It worms. I looked closer at their poop and there they were. So gross!!!! I'm running up to the feed store to get deformer. Their are little worms. Would this kill them so fast?

Yes, I would get fenbendazole(goat wormer) so it will kill tape worms. Wazine will not touch a tape worm.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

OMG!!! It worms. I looked closer at their poop and there they were. So gross!!!! I'm running up to the feed store to get deformer. Their are little worms. Would this kill them so fast?

It's possible with heat stress and worm overload, they could have gone fairly quickly. I would recommend that you use either Valbazen or Fenbendazole.
Dosage for Valbazen is 1/2 ml orally and then repeated in 10 days for each chicken and Fenbendazole (Safeguard, Panacur) is 1/4 ml per pound for 5 days in a row. Egg throw away period is 14days after last dosage.

 

[mycindysfarm]

Are they worms or maggots? Now I'm freaking out.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Are they worms or maggots? Now I'm freaking out.

Explain where you are seeing them? If in the poop---probably not maggots??

 

[mycindysfarm]

it is in the poop

 

[PD-Riverman]

If you have not wormed these-----they probably need it, But from my experience a really wormy chicken is usually under weight.