Cause of death?

[BLaBauve]

I found my 6 month old Wyandotte roo dead this morning. He's been hanging in there for 2 weeks now. It originally started with a respiratory infection and wobbling. I had put him in a dog crate away from the rest of the chickens. Throughout the 2 weeks he ate and drank, always. His infection went away, but he never stopped wobbling. 2 days ago I noticed mites/and or lice on him. I'm not sure which. I covered him in poultry dust and saw little red things come off everywhere. I changed his bedding and treated it with DE. Last night he seemed fine, still wobbly as always, but normal. I went out this morning and found him dead.

Did the mites/lice cause him to die? Was it something related to the wobbling? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Beth

 

[ruth]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. The little red things were mites and they will suck the blood from a bird till it is weak and anemic and yes, will eventually kill it, especially if it was already ill and weak. If you have other birds you should check/treat all of them.

 

[purpletree23]

Ruth is 100% right.

 

[BLaBauve]

Thanks for the reply. I have learned a hard lesson about mites. If this happens again what do you recommend is the best treatment? I have poultry dust and garden/livestock dust. The other chickens are fine, they're in the big run with lots of DE to dust bathe in. He got the mites when I moved him out of the coop while he was sick.

 

[purpletree23]

I would treat all of your chickens for mites and their coop just to be on the safe side. What kind of worming schedule do you have them on? Worms will make them very sick and also kill them. I worm once in the spring and once in the fall.

 

[BLaBauve]

They're only 5 months right now, I was going to wait until 6 months to worm them with Wazine 17. Does that sound right?