Chickens going crazy and killing themselves

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I sat there and watched them kill themselves. The inside had nothing in there. You have to go inside to feed and get eggs. There was nothing. They appeared to be doing it for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

I'm curious why you didn't try to stop them?

 

[MissChick@dee]

Do you have any photos of the birds? Their injuries and or bodies?

 

[ChickenSuicideEmergency]

I'm curious why you didn't try to stop them?

I was unable to. Tried to stop the first one, but did no good. Kept doing it.

 

[ChickenSuicideEmergency]

Can you go out and take picture of birds on the roost?
Is there something rotting in the run they might be eating?
How has the feed been stored?

Get them on fresh feed tomorrow morning and discard old stuff.

No birds left. Whatever took them took them all.

Nothing rotten. Feed is stored inside the house in the mud room. (room where you take off boots and coats)

Despite people asking, there is nothing inside the pen. Absolutely 100% certain of this otherwise I wouldn't be asking on here scratching my head.

 

[ChickenSuicideEmergency]

Do you have any photos of the birds? Their injuries and or bodies?

No. Burned for fear of virus or parasite. No visible injuries on them when I looked though. Just slammed their bodies into the sides of the cage until dropping dead.

 

[centrarchid]

I was not on the predator did it track. Poison or bad vitamins more what I am thinking.

Lets have a look at the feed. What is the run date on bag? Does the feed look clumpy or have an odd smell?

 

[ChickenSuicideEmergency]

I was not on the predator did it track. Poison or bad vitamins more what I am thinking.

Lets have a look at the feed. What is the run date on bag? Does the feed look clumpy or have an odd smell?

The feed seems fine date/appearance and all, but I am suspecting this could be the only thing imaginable. Maybe contaminated with something. But am still confused as to how in the world this could cause mass suicide.

Never even heard of mass suicide in chickens before.

 

[centrarchid]

It is not mass suicide. Rather a given bird as going into death throes may have dysfunction of nervous system, not unlike with seizures. I have seen similar with fish. The seizures hit when animals excited and they go crazy running into things. Activities usually not coordinated as animal tumbles about.

 

[ChickenSuicideEmergency]

It is not mass suicide. Rather a given bird as going into death throes may have dysfunction of nervous system, not unlike with seizures. I have seen similar with fish. The seizures hit when animals excited and they go crazy running into things. Activities usually not coordinated as animal tumbles about.

It's unfortunate. I feel very bad my babes had to suffer, but hadn't suspected until it was too late. But my suspicion is on the feed.

But I wanted to ask here and see if there was possibly something else like some sort of parasite that could cause it or a virus and if I needed to worry about it being inside the pen and infecting any new ones that I have in the future.

 

[centrarchid]

That is more of an outright vet question.