A friend had a bunch of birds die from an illness.

[mypicklebird]

Has she had any of them checked out yet? Has anyone gotten the state vet or vet school involved?
I applaud you for trying to help her, but it sounds like she has way to many animals. As I look through your post defending her- I see several things that worry me---
"all of her kids and their family live around her house and help her take care of the animals" this really sounds like she has WAY more than she can do on her own, and her entire family has to help her. Family helping family is great- but in many ways this can be looked at as enabling. She needs to downsize to what she can handle and house all seasons. As her friend, can you help her downsize to something she can handle> Do you know her family well? How much do the grown kids do? Collectors/hoarders start off 'rescuing' animals that they feel sorry for- but the people get overwhelmed (especially when the rescued are able to breed)- then the hoarder and the hoarded need to be rescued themselves. Take a big step back and look at her place and animals with a non biased eye. Forget this is your friend for a moment- are all of the animals clean, fed, have shelter, have dry/clean bedding, have adequate space, adequate medical care when they are ill. If you were a chicken- would you like to live there?

"she definitely loves her animals" Hoarders DO love their animals, that is not the question. Here is the wiki definition of animal hoarder. Does this sound liker her?
Animal hoarding involves keeping higher than usual numbers of animals as pets without having the ability to properly house or care for them, while at the same time denying this inability. Compulsive hoarding can be characterized as a symptom of mental disorder rather than deliberate cruelty towards animals. Hoarders are deeply attached to their pets and find it extremely difficult to let the pets go. They typically cannot comprehend that they are harming their pets by failing to provide them with proper care. Hoarders tend to believe that they provide the right amount of care for their pets.
If you think she could be a hoarder- call your county animal reg and ask that they do a well- animal visit. They go out, check out the place and if conditions are appalling- can impound. If conditions are poor, but no animals are obviously suffering they typically give a 'fix it' ticket- and re-inspect after a set amount of time. If conditions are nice, they say good job, sorry to bother you- carry on. I have called the county on a few neighbors & locals- Chained and starving dogs (impounded), starving horse- that turned out to just need a good float job- (they got a fixit ticket), local lady selling sick chickens in bulk every year to unknowing locals- helped get her shut down, sick & dead sheep on flooded pasture, confined & starving goats ect. I am always a bit nervous when I make the call, but I feel good knowing that someone with training is going to go out and take a look- and if warranted, help the animals & the people. Sometimes the people need to be educated about animal husbandry, sometimes the people need mental help, and sometimes the people need the ultimatum- you can keep NO animals, or you can keep x number of dogs, cats, chickens ect.

"she usually treats her birds when they starts seeing them getting sick, but this time the same medicine didn't work" There is a history of one or more diseases here- many poultry diseases have carrier states. Does she have any idea what illnesses have been there in the past?I wonder what medicines she has been using and whether she has ever had any birds tested. Especially knowing that she sells/gives birds away.

"all her animals look healthy" Except for the 100 dead chickens and turkeys, and the living sluggish sneezing ones? Seriously- 100 dead, she needs to call the state vet, or you do IMO.
How many birds do you think she has? Is 100 just a small fraction? What does she do with all of the eggs? I worry if she is selling them- due to foot traffic onto her 'farm' & some diseases can be transmitted through the egg. Maybe she is feeding them to the pig.

Sorry for the long post, but this thread really gets to me. I freak out if one chicken (or something else) dies unexpectedly- I have sent EVERY unexpected/unexplained death (not counting predator attacks- those deaths are explainable) to the state lab (1 turkey, one peafowl, a couple of chickens). Plus one rooster who had an acute severe respiratory disease- he was immediately culled and sent. I am very concerned about contagious disease. I truly cannot fathom having 100 birds die and not having called in the professionals yet. I do not know if she is not taking it seriously because of the species, or whether she is afraid if she has someone come out- they will see the farm and shut her down because she is not taking care of them, or whether she is unaware that there are professionals that can help with disease ID and control. In any event- please let us know what you/she is doing to figure out what is happening and get it under control.



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[reveriereptile]

I understand everyone's concerns. She took some to a vet and did find out it was a fungal problem from her bread. She has gotten rid of all the bread and the stopped using the bin it was in. Also has moved any of the chickens/turkeys that appear sick to one area seperated from the other birds. She buys old bread from stores and feeds it out as a treat. She found out her bin she stores it in had gotten a hole in it and gotten moisture in the bread. I forgot the name of the fungus but it isn't viral. Her birds that were penned up that had less access to the bread didn't show any signs of sickness and never had any deaths with them. She has gone on a major cleaning spree around her place. Usually when I go over to her place all the animals are a healthy looking weight, the bedding is all clean, she removes old food, water is always clean, and has plenty of space for her animals. She hangs the hay up along the walls of her buildings so the animals don't step in it and has hay in their laying areas that she cleans often. I can walk through most of the coops and pen areas and barely have any manure on my shoes unless I'm out near the goose/duck pond. I have gave her some of my birds different times if I had to many roosters and her chickens usually looked better than mine. I have seen some of the ones I gave her different times and they looked even bigger and better looking. I have asked her about the animals and what she does when she starts getting to many. She said usually she sells most of her sheep and just keeps a few for the winter, she has gotten rid of some of her horses during the early summer, most of her roosters she gives to the amish around here to eat except for a few, and usually sells some of her hens. Her boyfriend sells most of the rabbits before winter and then keeps a select few for the next year. This year she hasn't sold or gave any poultry away when she noticed them looking sick and dying. She didn't want to give someone or sell them something that was sick. She is having her other animals checked out also before selling any of them since they appeared fine but wanted to make sure. She also hasn't taken in anymore injured animals. I thought she kept most of her animals since I usually see a lot of animals and know she likes going to poultry auctions. I usually don't go over there during the winter cause it is to cold to be outside. She said the poultry she sells at are auctions a few hours away is why I never seen her really sell anything. She said for her poultry she usually likes to cut down to around 50 hens, a few roosters, guineas (about 20), peafowl (2), turkeys (3), and some of her geese/ducks (15), and her pigeons. Her boyfriend said they are going to cut back on animals next year since they have a daughter getting ready for college and a son that will be going in a few years so they are going to need the money. To answer the question about if I'd want to be an animal living at her place even if I didn't know her as a friend I would have to say yes. I met her through my FIL and the first time I went over to her place and seen all the animals I thought hoarder and usually watch animal planet and see them on there on the animal cops. After seeing all the animals I expected the coop/pen areas to be filthy and when she showed me around I was shocked by how clean it was. The pigeon area was a bit dusty from the pigeons flying around me since they were molting but each pair had their on nest. When I was growing up my mom and me would call the dog pound about animals being mistreated often since I don't like to see animals suffering.

Forgot to add that her boyfriend had been checking each dead one they found and some of them had injuries to them from a predator. They have problems with owls, foxes, coyotes, and raccoons. Also a neighbor near by sometimes tries to steal some of the birds to butcher them for eating. She found out some of her hens with chicks that came up missing were from the neighbor which is why she thought she had more die from being sick. She did give the neighbor a piece of her mind about taking her hens she bought instead of just asking for some roosters. They ended up only having around 24 dead birds that didn't have injuries and probably died of the fungus which most were this years chicks. They burned the bodies of the ones they didn't take in to be checked and sanitized the areas they found the birds.