Birds dying

[pnewman]

Hi

I have had a flock of 12 birds i am down to 6 now.
in the last month we have lost 2 for no reason the just acted sick one day and the next morning was dead today I found another one in the coop dead, it never even seemed sick.
Any ideas?
They free range all day and are in a large coop with a very large run at night.
They also live with my ducks.
They are all healthy.

Paul

 

[PeepsCA]

They may have eaten something toxic while out free ranging, (do you have a compost pile they can get into, are you or your neighbors using fertilizers or bug baits on your lawns or gardens? Is their feed possibly moldy or spoiled?)
They may have heavy parasite loads, (have you wormed your flock lately?)
If they were Hens they may have been egg bound, (are any of your other your still laying?)
They may have been spooked during the night by a predator and hit their head or broken their neck, etc...

Sometimes even after eliminating all the obvious possibilities it can still be impossible to say/guess what the cause of death could have been without doing a necropsy, and even then you may not find the cause.

Mystery deaths happen, but 3 in a month isn't a common occurrence. Hope you find the reason you are losing birds.

 

[pnewman]

They have fresh food always.
I have never wormed them, and they are still laying.
I think the one in the coop most likley hit its head good point, I have old ladders in there the roost on near the roof.
What do I do to worm them.

Paul

 

[PeepsCA]

You could get a bottle of the liquid Safeguard dewormer labeled for goats... or some people prefer to use Valbazen (a liquid cattle dewormer). Both are broad spectrum wormers, and Tractor Supply usually carries both of these or you can order them from jefferslivestock.com . Both dewormers are used off-label for poultry tho (so the dosage instructions are not on the bottles), and there are different methods of administering them... you'll need to do some BYC searching for all of that info. You'll need to do 2 treatments 10-14 days apart to make sure you get all of the worms, and if you are eating the eggs there is a 2 week withdrawal time while you shouldn't eat the eggs during/after treatment (some people eat the eggs anyway tho. I don't).