came home to another dead chicken :(

[boykin2010]

i found another dead chicken today. this is the 4th one in the last 3 or 4 months. i just got my last chicken autopsied and the man said that it died of a tumor but that it also had a disease. they werent sure what disease it was but obviuosly it is contagious because another one my most healthiest chickens just died. this is really heartbreaking for me it seems like all of my favorite chickens are dying. first it was my little tophat hen then it was my rhode island red hen then it was my little silkie who was definatley my favorite and today my laced wyanndotte hen died. she was very sweet and you could hold her. Please pray that no more chickens die. I just sent the laced wyandotte off the autopsie man again so he run more test to try and save my remaining 7 hens. It seems like i have gotten all the bad luck lately. I am new to chickens but i didnt know it would be this hard to keep chickens alive. all of my hens were healthy and i got them from a friend. Then my grandparents brought me 4 more that came from somwhere and i think they brought over the disease because 2 of the original 4 have died in the last 4 months. please give me some advice on how to continue... please pray that no more die. It really is sad when you get attached to them and you come home to your " lively and healthy hens" and one is just dead in the middle of the coop.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am so sorry your going through this. I hope you can get some answers, do they act like their sick before they die? do you have the sick ones isolated?

 

[chuckzoo]

Sorry to hear about your hens I hope you can get to the root of the problem.

 

[boykin2010]

the ones that have been dying have acted 100% normal except for my one rhode island red before it died. She hardly ever came out of the coop then after about 3 days of that she was dead on the ground. my silkie acted normal in the morning then i came out in the afternoon and she was dead. My laced wyandotte was the one i thought would outlive all the chickens. she was the most active and the dominant hen. my tophat was always really skiddish so i didnt get to look at the symptoms it had. i only had it a week before it died. my grandparents gave it to me for my birthday they got it from a " boy down the road from them "

i am really upset and so far i have spent 100$ on trying to figure out what is wrong with them by doing autopsies. this is the last autopsy i am gonna do because last time they said she had a disease but they didnt know exactly what the disease was. it really didnt help me. i am just hoping the other hens arent gonna die.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Who is doing the autopsies?

 

[boykin2010]

i have been giving the chicken to my veterinarian and then he sends then chicken to a professional somewhere in macon ga. I am not sure who the person is because i have been talking directly with my vet

 

[boykin2010]

anybody?

 

[Olive Hill]

I'd be looking for another vet. "It had a disease but we don't know what type." is a joke. If they saw signs of disease internally they could have at the very least told you what organ(s) were affected, in what way and what diseases were strong possibilities. I hope you didn't pay much for that particular service.

 

[peterlund]

DO NOT give any more money to ANYONE who does or orders an autopsy and gives you such poor results. A tumor and a disease??? No Way. There are specific issues with chickens, and a qualified person would give you much better information. Save your $$$ Do some online research and figure it out for yourself. Sorry for the loss BTW... it is not easy losing livestock/pets, but keep your money from suffering a loss as well.... Whew! Just had to say it. (Don't flame me,,,)

Olivehill beat me to the punch, but was right on!!

 

[CMV]

They had a disease, but didn't know what it was? Really? That's all they gave you? I'd be demanding my next necropsy for free with that lame information. They've given you just enough information to ensure that you keep sending birds in for necropsy (not to mention scaring the heck out of you) without actually specifying what is wrong. I think I would be asking for some more information regarding who is working on your birds, what their qualifications are, and what affiliation they have to your vet. If the answers are not forthcoming or seem at all fishy I would be looking for a new vet.