Chickens Dying!!! PLEASE HELP

[ladyoranna]

We are new to raising chickens and ha e lost 2 in the course of 3 weeks. They were fine one day and sick the next. We bought all of them in March from Murdochs which is a big chain feed & Tack store and they didnt have specific breed for the majority of the ones we bought. Just that they were straight run. Those are all white and very large in size.. We also have a. Black austrolop* and im sorry but dont remember the breed of the other two i think it is bantam but not sure. Terrible i know. The first one we lost was one of the straight run and a Roo that went very quickly. and now we are losing one of the Bantam which is a hen it looked like we were going to lose her quickly as well but then she started to pull out of it, however she has gone back down overnight.The symptoms they are showing are severe sleepyness, pulling their feet up under them and locked into place so cant stand laying head stretched out on the ground and very un responsive. My neice raises chickens and when i asked her about this she said it sounded like sleepy sickness. We have checked for mites and didnt find any. Also her poo is normal in color (black with white specks). Im especially heart broken about losing the bantam because we have already had to nurse her back to health from a dog attack. Any help would be greatly appreciated. No rude comments please we are heart broken enough.

 

[Chicken Bff]

You need to put electrolites in their water i had the same problem a few years ago but thats what i think it is.

 

[ladyoranna]

We started putting electrolytes back in their water yesterday.

 

[Chicken Bff]

Can you post a picture of their brooder please i had a brooder set up wrong once and it caused a few of my chicks to die.

 

[ladyoranna]

They are no longer in a brooder they are in a coop. They are roughly 8 months old. We now have 10 chickens did have 12 1 for each nesting box.

 

[Chicken Bff]

Sorry I thought it said chicks. What is your weather at your house and what is their diet.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Have they had any stresses lately? Could it be possible for them to have become stressed enough to be overcome by coccidiosis?
I just went through this with older chicks early fall; very little sign of anything other than lethargy and looking rough...they just died and died very quickly.
That's me first thought because it reminds me of my situation. Chickens can succumb to coccidi at any age IF the conditions are right.

 

[ladyoranna]

We live in the mountains of montana the weather has been nice but chilly. We were told when we bought them that the breeds we have do really well in cold westher and high altitudes.

 

[ladyoranna]

I dont think they have had any stress but cant be completely sure. They are let out during the day and put back in the coop at night to protect against night time predators. We do have coyotes and badgers in the area, but have never left them out at night. It does get chilly at night but was told the breeds we bought do well in cold weather and high altitude.

 

[ladyoranna]

We lost the bantam she just finally gave up so heartbroke and my daughter is just devastated