2 dead-no idea why

[seminolewind]

I have ten-10 week old chicks in a pen . Totally enclosed with hardware cloth. This morning I find 2 dead. 1 male and 1 female. There was a small amount of blood on the roof of their dog house-coop, but I can't find any blood on any chicken. It's just maybe 3 blobs the size of quarters.

I just can't figure it out. 2! Any ideas?

 

[CMV]

Was the blood inside the roof or outside?

If it was inside on the ceiling, I would guess they spooked or were sparring and they flew/jumped into the roof and gave themselves fatal injuries.

If it was outside on the roof, then do they have access to that area? If not, I am guessing you have a predator at work.

Sorry for your losses.

 

[folgerrd]

X2

 

[seminolewind]

Hi. They are in an 8 X 8 X 8 hardware cloth pen with no sign of intrusion. The roof I mentioned is a real dog house maybe thigh high, some sleep inside, some roost on the roof of the dog house

2! I don't know why! I really need to know . One was flat on her back . The other was on his side. About 1 foot or so apart.

 

[folgerrd]

They may have been suffocated by the others, or gotten in a fight. Is it possible theres a burrowing hole under some of the hardware cloth walls?

 

[seminolewind]

I went back out there and examined them on the outside. Each one had a gush of blood when I pressed the tail/abdomen area. Gush. And no blood on the outside of the vent.

There is no sign of entry. Hubby thinks snake, but snakes , I think, don't bite 2 sleeping youngsters perched on a doghouse for no reason in the middle of the night???

We've been back there alot in the past few days just hanging out and no one looked sick. I just put them all on Corrid as a precaution. I just don't know. There were 9 in there, now there are 7.

 

[folgerrd]

I just don't know.

 

[seminolewind]

Seems like Enteritis. Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[seminolewind]

No one has had chickens with Enteritis?

 

[Erica]

Hi seminolewind,

I've had a bought-in bird with enteritis; however the droppings were dark brown and copious. It doesn't sound as though your birds showed symptoms like that. There are different sorts of enteritis so I suppose the ulcerative kind could be associated with bright blood if lesions near the outside of the body suddenly burst (as I understand it dark brown droppings mean the lesions are further away from the vent, i.e. higher up in the gut). I'm not sure if that's any help at all, but it sounds like your birds have something going on in the very lowest part of the intestine.

There are at least 2 eimeria (cocci) types that affect the area of the intestine close to the outside; one of them (brunetti) can affect the cecum. I'd still be thinking in terms of cocci, perhaps a really fast and brutal strain.

Not sure if this adds anything... sorry if it's no help.

Erica