2 Dead hens and a collapsed rooster

[cgarai]

Hi,

This morning I went to the chicken pen and found 2 dead laying hens outside the coop and a collapsed and almost dead young rooster in the coop. No apparent injuries. There were some extra feathers in the coop.

Yesterday I emptied a yellow jacket trap into the pen. The chickens seemed uninterested in them. This morning when I went down and found the dead and dying(?) chickens I noticed that the yellow jacket pile had been disturbed and possibly some of it consumed. Is it possible that the dead yellow jackets had botulism? The trap hadnt been used this year until about a week ago, so the oldest dead bugs could have been a week old.

The rooster this after noon is still alive, but completely listless. Is there anything I can do for him?

Thanks
Chris

 

[RosemaryDuck]

Hi,

This morning I went to the chicken pen and found 2 dead laying hens outside the coop and a collapsed and almost dead young rooster in the coop. No apparent injuries. There were some extra feathers in the coop.

Yesterday I emptied a yellow jacket trap into the pen. The chickens seemed uninterested in them. This morning when I went down and found the dead and dying(?) chickens I noticed that the yellow jacket pile had been disturbed and possibly some of it consumed. Is it possible that the dead yellow jackets had botulism? The trap hadnt been used this year until about a week ago, so the oldest dead bugs could have been a week old.

The rooster this after noon is still alive, but completely listless. Is there anything I can do for him?

Thanks
Chris

Some types of traps sold for bugs will have pesticides/baits in them that can be highly toxic to animals. Its possible they were poisoned.

If it didn't have anything in it and it was just the trap, I would suspect the wasps were rotted and may have had time to build up a lot of nasty bacteria. I'm not sure what you can do in this case, so I'll tag some others here.

@Eggcessive
@sourland
@Miss Lydia

 

[Eggcessive]

I am sorry about your loss. How is the rooster doing today? Are any others ill? I would make sure that he is drinking water, and hold it up to his beak often. I am not sure if your state vet could diagnose what was wrong with a necropsy if you kept a body cold and took it in. Epsom salts flushes are sometimes helpful if poison is eaten.