3 dead suddenly. Now a few are sick.

[Ash56]

The other night we had a 14 week old female leghorn die, for seemingly no reason. The Ring camera went off and I looked and she was just standing there. Kept watching and she starting flapping uncontrollably and flipping around and eventually fell over and died. We were sad but just figured she had an underlying heart problem because no one else was sick.

Now I have three that are sick in different ways and I have no idea if it’s related. My first thought was that it is related but their symptoms are not even similar so I don’t know.

A 6 month old Brahma bantam is sick but I don’t know how or what’s wrong or what to treat because her symptoms are so vague. Her crop was empty all day as if she’s ate and drank nothing and she was just laying in the corner not interacting with anyone. I thought she was just over heating and put her inside for an hour but nothing changed, she still spent the entire day just standing in one spot or sitting. That’s it nothing else. She didn’t lay an egg today but neither did anyone else which I assumed was from the loss of their flock mate two days ago.

Another one that is sick is a 14 week old pulley and she has a swollen crop that is squishy and feels to be full of liquid. At one point she was drooling yellow stuff. I have chalked this one up to sour crop and I’m trying to treat her for that. We gave her monistat and brought her inside to watch her and make sure she doesn’t drink. I read they shouldn’t drink?

The last sick one is a 14 week old male. He has a floppy comb and is just like the Brahma. He sits in one spot and is just acting weird. He was making a weird noise I have never heard, in my 6 months of chicken owning, off and on for awhile but isn’t doing that anymore. I looked up chicken sneezing and it didn’t exactly sound like that but kind of did.

Then tonight I go out to put everyone to bed and 2 more girls are dead. Two leghorns again and they were the same age as the first leghorn that died. I got them from TSC 14 weeks ago and they have seemed perfectly healthy all this time and then boom they’re just dead. Only leghorns have died so I’m wondering if maybe they’re just ultra sensitive to whatever is going around the flock? Idk I am seriously confused and don’t even know where to start.

A few theories I have: We have this medium sized mud hole, about 6 inches deep. We fill it with water sometimes when it’s really hot. I regret doing that I am so sure that has harbored some kind of bacteria, virus, parasite, something…It’s been 106 degrees nonstop for 2 months here in San Antonio and they loved this mud hole thing but now I am wondering if that is what is causing this somehow. Next theory: We our first rain in 2 months 2 days ago. The weather dropped from this constant 105 degree weather to 75-85 and thunderstorms all day. They were in the covered run but they’re not used to rain. Then the very next day after the rain it went back to 105 and hasn’t quit.

If anyone has any ideas at all throw them out there I’m so nervous we’re going to lose some more

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Is vet care an option?

If you lose another, sending the body for testing would be a very good idea so you have more information about what's happening and how to treat. https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

What are you feeding, including treats?

Have you treated them with anything at this point - dewormed, given supplements, medications, herbs, etc. ?

Please post photos of the birds and their poop.

Any food get moldy or do they have access to compost or anything toxic (weed killer, fertilizer, etc.)?

Do you provide grit (crushed granite) and oyster shell free choice?

The puddle could be part of the problem. If you can take a sample of poop to your vet that would be a good idea.

Hard to know what's going on, possibly they have some type of infection or parasite, but I'm not sure where you'd begin with treatment unless you want to just treat for all. Coccidiosis, worms and infection.

Your cocker is making a noise? Can you get video of it? Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

Throwing/spitting up liquid, sounds like a sour crop or impacted system - work on that according to the article below.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[azygous]

How distressing and sad. Not knowing what's killing the chickens makes it even worse because without knowing, it's hard to properly treat your chickens to prevent any more deaths. The best thing would be to take a sick or recently deceased chicken to a state lab and have a necropsy done. How close are either of these labs to you?
Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory
Texas State-Federal Laboratory (Austin)

From the symptoms, I would guess this is toxic poisoning or a virulent bacteria from that mud puddle if the chickens have been drinking from it. If you've treated any garden plants with insecticide, rain can reconstitute it and wash it into a puddle. When I first began keeping chickens, a hen died from drinking from a puddle under a potted plant I had treated several days before with insecticide. It was before I had it straight in my mind that some things I was doing before I had chickens I could no longer do now that I have chickens. The yellow drool from the beak of one of your chickens is something that happens to a poisoned chicken.

Even worse bacteria found in the lowest layers of a compost pile can kill chickens in just a day after eating something dug up from these lower anaerobic layers. If you suspect that may be behind these deaths, immediate treatment with amoxicillin will prevent death and the chicken will usually survive. Unfortunately, if it's insecticide that has killed these chickens, the only thing to do is keep the rest of the chickens away from these sites until it all breaks down and disappears.

 

[Clucks and Giggles]

I had a 10 1/2 mo. Silver Laced Wyandotte die of botulism (according to the symptoms I had researched) within 24 hours of first 'sick' symptoms. She had a floppy neck and very hot stomach with some feathers falling out. I had a large potted plant in their run that had a saucer underneath with blocked drainage holes, so the water putrified. When I inspected it closely it had smelled awful and there were little tiny white worms wiggling around the rim. After burying her, I removed the other hens away from the area, got rid of the plant, and drenched the area in Hydrogen Peroxide to hopefully kill any remaining bacteria, then I let it dry when it could, raked it real well, and laid down sterilized sand throughout my entire outdoor run so it would drain well. I live in South Florida and it was the end of May, just as the temps were starting to soar, and we were also getting a lot of rain, which turns our silty sand into muck, and it has been too much for our ground to absorb all the water this year. We also put two ocsilating fans on the wall of their smaller inner run-under-roof to keep things ventilated and dry there. A month later, one of my Gold Wyandottes started acting ill and listless, so I gave her an epsom salt bath and we had already purchased a 50% sunblock, breathable mesh cover for their outdoor run to get the temps down, so we immediately out that up. We too have had a blistering summer, somedays well over 100, and I believe the heat stress has had a lot to do with them getting sick also. The second sick hen had happened in June, and we have had no issues since doing the remedies above with any of our hens. Also, with the heat and moisture, make sure you are checking their feet for bumble foot (wet bacteria muck will make it worse after they hurt their foot, and could probably kill them fast), and also keep checking their vents for flystrike (fly larvae). Hope some or all of this might help. I was so distraught when I lost my Kira, but thankful I was able to save my Indigo, and that my other 3 hens and roo didn't get sick either.

 

[Ash56]

Sorry for not responding. After that happened we brought any chickens inside that were showing symptoms until they were better. Then, my family and I (husband, me, and three kids) all caught a bad case of Covid, so we’ve been pretty distracted.

The day after the leghorns died a few chickens seemed to have a respiratory infection. We brought them in and gave two chickens amoxicillin for 5-7 days (I can’t even remember now the exact amount) and one got terramycin for an eye infection for a week. The sick all recovered and it was just those three that died. The three that died showed zero symptoms of anything being off. I have wanted Leghorns for so long and now I’m honestly scared to ever raise any again. I know what happened wasn’t a Leghorn thing but it was just so random it freaked me out. We bought 5 Leghorns from TSC in June. Sold two of those around 12 weeks and kept three. They were so shy and sweet

We did get rid of the hole after that too. The hens all stopped laying consistently after the deaths. They each lay probably one egg a week now since that happened when before, they were daily layers.