Cheryl's Hen House...

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In the interest of keeping the thread up to date, I'm so sad to report that we lost one of our girls yesterday and another is sick. Aunt Bea, one of the BO's was dead in the coop when I got home yesterday. I see nothing wrong with her at all. No blood, no wounds, no mites, nothing. Our beloved #7 is also sick. She has some sort of respiratory issue and a bad case of the loose poops. Labored breathing and very lethargic. We have her in the house and treating her with antibiotics and NutriDrench. I've no clue what's going on. I feel like all of this is somehow related to the wood chips that I put in the run but not sure at this point.

One of the great things about living where we do is that there is one of the foremost poultry research facilities on the planet just a few miles away at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. I contacted the U of A Poultry Science Dept. and a very nice poultry research veterinarian is actually coming here tomorrow to pick up Aunt Bea for necropsy and to examine #7 and the rest of the flock. It is such a blessing to have such a research facility close enough for them to make a house/coop/run call. He says that we will know everything there is to know about the flock by Monday.

The other 6 girls are doing just fine. They all seem perfectly normal but a bit out of sorts over the missing birds. Hopefully #7 will make yet another recovery and rejoin her sisters before long. I'll update as I know more.
 
Oh Terry, I'm so sorry! I hope #7 will be ok. It's really awesome that UofA will help you figure out the problem. Hopefully that will enable you to keep the rest of the girls safe. I hope it's not the wood. The wood seems like such a good idea.

I'm going to read your other thread now.
 
Finnie said:
Oh Terry, I'm so sorry! I hope #7 will be ok. It's really awesome that UofA will help you figure out the problem. Hopefully that will enable you to keep the rest of the girls safe. I hope it's not the wood. The wood seems like such a good idea.

I'm going to read your other thread now.
Click to expand...


Thanks Finnie. We sure have been through quite a bit with #7. She seems more alert tonight. We're giving her as much liquid as she will take one Q tip load at a time. We're feeling very blessed to have such a wonderful resource available to give us some answers.
 
I met with the researchers from the U of A this morning. They swabbed all the chickens in the coop as well as #7. They took poop samples and samples of the wood chips. They also took Aunt Bea for necropsy. They did a very thorough inspection of the birds and the coop and run. I got a call back from Dr.Clark this afternoon. The problem is fungi in the wood chips that I had put in the run. Likely Aspergillus. The Aspergillus fungi was apparently aspirated into the lungs where it began to grow and basically suffocated the bird. The official cause of death for Aunt Bea was fungal pneumonia. Her lungs were full of fungal lesions. #7 had all the typical symptoms of the same. #7 was dead when I got home. Dr.Clark is coming by later to pick her up. He asked me if we would be interested in the U of A using her as a teaching aid. They will do a cosmetic necropsy and preserve her skeleton. She will help teach poultry science students for a long time to come so in some small way #7 will not have died in total vain.

The prognosis for the remaining 6 is good but guarded. All of them are perfectly healthy with everything coming back negative from the swabs. There is no actual test for the fungi but they saw no sign of it in the remaining birds. It is a wait and see now according to Dr.Clark, They were all exposed so they all could be infected. Hopefully we will not loose them all.
 

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