Cause of Chicken death?

[chickencastle]

One of our 8 month old BB Red English game banties died over a course of about 10 hours yesterday. She had been healthy as far as we know. Her neck was very weak and her right side lost coordination. She couldn't stay upright. We brought her in to stay warm and she revived a little. She kept stretching her head way back almost like a convulsion. No particular discharge. She looked quite healthy. Any ideas. We have other chickens who seem to be doing fine.

 

[chickensioux]

Sometimes without a necropsy you will never know what the chicken died from. There are several things that it could have been to cause "neurological symptoms" like you describle. Vitamin deficiencies can cause this, what are you feeding your birds? Newcastle disease and Mareks can cause this as well. Do searches for these diseases and see if they fit what you describe. Hope this helps and so sorry for the loss of your bird.

 

[usschicago1]

Quote:
I agree. I would say neurological. This could be bye poisoning ( maybe some sort of chemical, or mold) or a nutrient deficiency.
So Sorry

 

[chickencastle]

Thanks for your answers. From U of Florida website http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044 her symptoms look most like Equine Encephalitis. The idea of some kind of mold makes a little more sense though as we've had nearly 80" of rain her in NE Texas in the past year and a heavy snow on top of that. It's too cold for mosquitoes now but we had a bunch in the fall. Any good ideas out there for preventing them around a chicken coop w/out poisoning the chickens?

 

[dragonlair]

You can buy things called Mosquito dunks that work wonderfully. I live in a real damp area with tons of the nasty little things. The dunks are just naturally occurring bacteria that target only skeeter larvae. You dump one in a pool of water and it kills them, and keeps right on killing. Its safe for all livestock and poultry.