3 dead chickens

[bekkers]

Hello all,

I don't think I have posted before other than in introduction, but I
now have aproblem and need some advice.

We had 6 young chickens (all about 4-5 months old) 3 RIR (close to 5
months old) and 1 buff brahma, 1 light brahma, and another RIR all
closer to 3.5-4 months old. We have them in an ark in front of the
house (moved around so it is sometimes on lawn and sometimes on gravel
drive) and they all seemed to get along (the younger 3 were acquired
about a week after the older 3 and took a couple of days to blend in,
but now they all seem friendly enough to each other, especially the 4
rir) we have been keeping them in this way for several weeks. We give
them table scraps (salad, fruit, meat/fish) in addition to the bag of
grain based feed that I was told to use by the feed store clerk. We
threw the bag out so I am not sure the brand now, we keep it in a
tupperware bin in the garage.

My husband checked on them and made a small repair to the netting on
the ark early this morning on his way to work and all seemed fine,
they had food and water. It has been very very hot here the last
couple fo weeks and I have been concerned about them but take fresh
water out and keep a shady spot available in the ark where they tend
to congregate and they have been fine, and today was actually much
cooler than ususal, in the low 80's instead of 96-104. When we left
this morning for swimming lessons at 9:45 they were all alive and
sanding up, actually making a little more noise than ususal. They
usually start chattering when they see me come close b/c I bring food,
but when I am in the distance walking to the car they pretty much
ignore me, and I momentarily thought I should go see what they were
telling me, but we were running late and I figured I would get them
fresh water when I got home. We got home around 11:15 and I went over
to give them water and the 2 brahmas and (I think) the younger rir
were lying on the ground 2 in the shade, and my favorite brahma was in
the sun. She never leaves the shad unless it is for food when it is
hot so I was surprised to see her there untill I saw that she was
dead. (sometimes when it is very hot I worry for a minute until I get
close look b/c they kind of lay on the ground odly, but I have found
that is is b/c they dig a little cup in the dust and are relaxing in
it and they shake all the dust off when they get up. I guess they are
taking dust baths and cooling off just laying around a bit.

They did not have any marks on them indicating a predator, and I don't
think anything could have gotten into the ark other than rodents,
weasels or snakes but since it was midmorning and we live on a
residential street with traffic (it is a very nice suburban
neighbourhood, we are able to have the chickens b/c our hoa
provenances are expired and everyone I have asked says they like the
chickens, etc...) I thought that was unlikely, Though, now that I
think about it again, I do remember kind of smeeling a skunk like
smell as we were leaving for pool lessons, which I though was weird
b/c usually we smell them at night. I didn;t actually look them over
closely as I was a bit upset, my husband came home on his lunch hour
and took care of it but he said he didn't see anything major. He
thought at first the buff brahma might have a peck mark near here ear,
but I said she has always had to small red marks there, He (my
husband) suggested that maybe they all still were not really getting
along well (though I have never seen them actually peck at each other,
annd when watching them all day they congregate together, etc...) and
the older tougher (kind of obnoxious rir, frankly) attacked the
younger three and pecked them to death or something, but I really
really don't think that was it.

My first thought was actually that someone may have come by and fed
them something toxic as last week we recieved an anonnymous letter
telling us we had to remove them (citing the 9 year expired
provisions) and leaving nno contact information so we could explain.
It felt very hostile and we are apparently ignoring them I was afraid
they might contact a city agency (which would be ok b/c we are in the
right, but still was a stressfull thought) or do something else. I
don't know why only 3 of the birds would be harmed though if someone
did somehting intentional. Perhaps the older ones knew better? We took
away the grain and moved the ark a bit so they spilled food is not
accessable, just in case, and gave them fresh water and some canned
tuna (their favorite treat) until I can figure out what to do. Should
I move them to the backyard where a possible malicious neighboor could
not reach them? I put the in the front b/c our labradors were
harrasing them quite badly and I thought this would suit everyone
best. The ramaining RIR's seems to be acting normally, they are eating
the tuna, and generally hanging out in the shade as usuall. Their
combs are bright red and otherwise healthy looking, My husband did
point out that the others did not have big bright combs, but I assumed
that it iwas b/c they were younger and not close to laying age yet.
Could this be a mineral/vitamin imbalannce? Theya re all getting the
same food, is the age/sturdiness what couuld make the difference?
Right now they are on another part of the gravel dirve, and I guess we
weill let them stay there until we come up with a plan.

Sorry for the thesis, any advice would be appreciated.

--Rebekah in Yakima, WA

 

[bekkers]

Also, my husband has suggested that even though it is not as hot as it has been, it is still very hot and is it possible that the three younger/less hearty birds might have succumbed to the heat?

 

[Chickenmaven]

Wow, I am so sorry to hear this.
I think this might be a case where you'll never know. It certainly could have been the heat or a critter or a mean person. I would advice keeping them as close to the house & secure as possible.
Take care!

 

[posey]

Rebekka:
I am so sorry to hear about your pullets. It's always so sad when something like this happens, and all you are left with is questions.

I agree that it might be best to keep your ark in a safe place where malicious people won't be able to harm them.

I live in coastal NC and it is really hot here in the spring and summer. We keep our pullets in the shade as much as possible during the hot summer days. We have found a 10 degree temp difference between under the shade trees in the front of our house to the wide open sunny area in the back. I would try to position your ark in as much shade as possible.

On those really hot days, you can add a few ice cubes to their drinking water to help cool it down a bit. I have also read that some folks get their chickens to run through a sprinkler to help cool them down. You might try to gently mist them with cool water.

Mostly I would try to keep a very watchful eye on them for the next week or so. If the unfortunate should happen again, I would suggest that you take the body to your nearest State Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. That is really the only way that you may ever know what it happening. I have done this myself and it's hard but I did it to try to save the others lives.

You could also try doing a search of the forum and look for information about: heat stress, cooling chicks on a hot day, etc.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Hoping your other girls will be healthy and fine

 

[bekkers]

Posey,

do you know how I can find the state animal disease diagnostic laboratories? I am having trouble finding the information for washington state. We are located in Yakima.

I have been much more diligent about keeping the chickens cool on previous days, like ice in their water etc, though they seemed freaked out by the ice, I think they were bothered that the water wasn't clear. They wouldn't drink it unntil it all melted. I just can't believe I didn't do anything to help them this morning, it seemd very cool and comfortable to me all morning, but by this evening around 5:30 it was back to 107, so I guess it was a hot day, I must have felt more comfortable b/c the humidity is lower. We moved the ark to a spot close to a tree tonight, and misted the chickens a few times this evening. (seemed to piss them off actually...)

Thanks so much,

--Rebekah

 

[kathyinmo]

do you know how I can find the state animal disease diagnostic laboratories? I am having trouble finding the information for washington state. We are located in Yakima.

Maybe this will help....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=40141​

 

[Eggs4Sale]

When you returned home and found them in this state, were they out of water? In my experience, chickens that are dying of heat exhaustion will drink every drop of water they have in an effort to cool down. Then, when they run out they really suffer. But the others seemed okay? I had the heat thing happen. They ALL looked bad, or were dead. The survivors had a really hard time walking for many hours, some for more than a day.

BUT, a chicken tractor out in the sun, even with a roof or shade, is going to get too hot in 100 degree weather. They need to be under a tree.

 

[bekkers]

They did have water, 2 dishes, half full. I refill them a few times every day and give them a rinse b/c the birds kick up gravel into them, etc. The chicken tractor has a quarter of the roof covered with a tarp to provide shade b./c we have very little shade near our home, the tractor is serving as a coop at the moment as well as a run b/c of the heat, we didn't want to put them in an enclosure without excellent ventilation. The tractor is 8 foot by 8 foot by 4 feet high, with a perch/roost built into one corner 3/4 of the way up to the "roof" and the tarp covering close to half, but not quite that much of the roof. the rest of the roof and sides are covered by plastic mesh chicken "wire". We give them a pyrex baking dish full of food as well as scatted grain and table scraps and weeds, etc... and 2 dog dishes for water all the time. I try to keep food available in their dish as well all the time. I would agree that if it was heat it seems odd for the 3 RIR to be ok, but they just seemed tougher, I don't understand why a few weeks of age would make such a difference, or if it would in fact at all. Why those three then?

In further discussion with my husband we tended to think it must be the heat b/c he didn't see any marks on the bodies, or indication of illness like stuff coming from their mouths, etc... Would they show signs like that if it was an illness or something toxic versus the heat? We are more knowledgeable about dogs and children (medically) so we are basing our judgements on that background, which is not necessarily correct I know. We just thought that if a mammal ate something bad and died or started reacting to it, you can often tell, they don't just, stop, and fall over, y'know? well, I guess they can if it is really potent, I don't know. We just considered that they would vomit or something first and we would see some evidence.

I am not sure how to cool them better than we have been, I will work on finding better shade and misting them more frequently.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

I have no experience with the poisoning.

But it truly doesn't sound like heat exhaustion, but then I don't live where you do. One way to tell would be to go sit in the tractor with them and see if you can stand it. But if the others aren't acting unusually heat stressed, it just doesn't add up.

Have you googled poisoning in poultry/ fowl?

With the letter being just a week ago, and them being right out front, it just seems to lean toward that, really.

If a skunk had got them, they would have been bloodied, or at least smell of skunk, right? I don't know.

 

[babyspice35]

Not to mention if it was heat exhaustion, your brahma would have probably been in the shade, right? If they were too hot they wouldn't have gone in the sun. You're sure you didn't see any BB's- I know they're small...? I agree with Eggs4Sale - the letter is eery.

Just curious... what happened to the netting that required your DH to fix it?