2 sudden deaths in a week no signs of illness or injury

[SashaRenee]

Sadly I have lost 1 Buff Plymouth Rock and 1 Silkie Roo in one week! Just found them laying on the floor of the coop dead with no signs of injury or illness about a week apart. We have an "open coop" concept being it's a structure with chicken wire walls. We live in Florida... Recently we've had extreme amounts of rain and flooding like crazy! Including the coops which left the floors complete muck!!!! I'm speculating this could be a cause of my sudden chicken deaths mainly cause I know mud is a perfect bleeding ground for worms.... Can worms kill chickens? I have added sand to both coops to not only elevate the ground higher but to rid the coops of mud and I plan on treating my flock with ivermectin pour on ASAP.... Is there anything else I should do? Also can worms/parasites be causing my chickens to die? I didn't have an issue until all this rain started happening its weird. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank u...

 

[Eggcessive]

How old are your chickens? Coccidiosis can be a real problem with wet warm weather, especially if the chickens are younger. Corid (amprollium) is good to use in the water for treatment. Form worms, ivermectin has lost it's effectiveness because of it's overuse treating mites. I would recommend Valbazen 1/2 ml orally to each chicken, and repeat in 10 days. If you can locate Valbazen, then get SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer or Equine Paste. Worms can kill if there is a large worm load, but I would suspect cocci first. If you take a few droppings into a vet for a fecal float, they can tell you what the problem is.

 

[SashaRenee]

I was suspect of cocci as well thinking how blood isn't always present in the poop. I do have Corid n my first aid kit so I'll go ahead n get them started on that today. I also have Wazine on hand but its only for round worms and I wanted to use a more broad spectrum wormer. Thanks for ur recommendations and the info on Ivermectin... I had no idea immunity was a factor. These 2 chickens were only about a year old... Which made it harder for me knowing they had a short life! The new sand floor is working out perfectly and they r muck free now! Thank god! Our county was recently declared a state of emergency due to mass flooding n rain. Now that I have 2 losses n my flock back to back I knew there had to be a connection. Muck plus chickens equals nothing but problems! Thank u so much for ur response Eggcessive!

 

[SashaRenee]

E

How old are your chickens? Coccidiosis can be a real problem with wet warm weather, especially if the chickens are younger. Corid (amprollium) is good to use in the water for treatment. Form worms, ivermectin has lost it's effectiveness because of it's overuse treating mites. I would recommend Valbazen 1/2 ml orally to each chicken, and repeat in 10 days. If you can locate Valbazen, then get SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer or Equine Paste. Worms can kill if there is a large worm load, but I would suspect cocci first. If you take a few droppings into a vet for a fecal float, they can tell you what the problem is.

Eggcessive I also replied to it response above... Quick question tho... I was just about to make up a batch of Corid for my flock then I realized I'm not sure if I should treat them for "preventative" "moderate" or "severe" I know the dosage for all 3 just not sure which one to go with... TIA

 

[Mutt Farm]

Hi. Informative thread. I'm posting so I can follow these great medication recommendations. I've not had to worm yet. Glad the sand solved the mud problem. I use sand over DG in the coop here and it stays so clean. Thanks for letting me stalk! And thanks @Eggcessive for the great info.

 

[SashaRenee]

Eggcessive must be busy so I'll go with my gut feeling in treat my flock with Corid as if its a severe case of cocci... I got side tracked yesterday when I went into the coop I discovered "Sparkles" had a prolapsed vent! Sigh... I quickly sprang into action and got her all fixed up. I'm happy to say that she's doing WONDERFUL this morning and everything is staying in place "in there"... Now my attention is back on the other chickens so here I go to the coop now to get the Corid treatment going. It's been one heck of a week for me n my flock... Times like this having BYC is so comforting!!! Thank u all!

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes, I would always use the severe outbreak dosage of Corid (amprollium) for an outbreak. That is 2 tsp of the liquid, or 1.5 tsp of the powder Corid per gallon of water, changed daily, for 5-7 days. The preventative dosage is for treating young chicks as they are first being exposed to coccidia on the ground. Glad that your chicken with a prolapse is doing okay. Sometimes I have seen prolapsed tissue hanging out when a chicken is straining from being held, or from laying an egg, and it goes back to normal on it's own. For one that stays out, honey, sugar, or Preparation H cream can be applied to reduce the swelling it it won't go back in with just lubrication. These are two links that are good about prolapse treatment:
http://beautyofbirds.com/Prolapse.htm
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/prolapse-vent-causes-treatment-graphic.html

 

[SashaRenee]

Thanks bunches Eggcessive! I have the liquid Corid... My chicken first aid kit already had it in there... Yippie! Lol... For Sparkles I did have to go get the Preperstion H from the store being I never dealt with prolapse I didn't have that in there but I will from now on! I was so terrified when I seen her vent and I didn't even know what it was but I googled it and thankfully found out quickly what was wrong then I read some forums here on BYC about the topic... I was able to tend to her all by myself which made me so proud! More chicken experience under my belt! She's doing great! I hope to be as educated as u one day Eggcessive! Lol... I see u in a lot of forums.. Ur a chicken angel to say the least... Bless your heart!!! Thank u again!!!!