Chickens possibly ate mouse poison- help I am so distraught

[lakeontariochicks]

I am so devastated right now, I am hoping someone can help us.

We have been letting the girls and the younger chickens out for a few hours every afternoon now to free range before dark. We've been dealing with a fox who comes by occasionally and a hawk who has got quite bold in the last few days, so usually hubby is out there with them.

Today I looked out and saw him picking up chickens and putting them back in the run, so I went out to see what was going on.

We live on an apple farm, and some times they will put out mouse poison. Apparently they did today, and the guy who leases the trees told our neighbor, who owns the trees, to tell us, but he forgot.

I don't think the chickens were out there for very long, but the poison is mixed with cracked corn, and I know for sure some did eat it.

I just don't know what to do. Does anyone know if there's anything we can do for them? Should we throw out their eggs for awhile? I imagine we shouldn't eat the eggs, but for how long? Assuming any of them live.

We have 37 of the best chickens ever right now, and I just can't imagine losing all of them at once. I know I won't sleep tonight, and I won't want to go out to the coop tomorrow. I just wish there was something I could do for them.

 

[viktoriacl]

If it is an aticoagulant it will cause your chickens bood to thin and they will start bleeding from everywhere. There mouth, eyes, butt etc. Check to see what kind of poison it was. The antidote is vitamin K. You can get it over the counter at a regular drug store.

 

[JLS]

Vitamin K is the antidote to mouse poison. I'm not sure how much is supposed to be given to them so you'll need to call your vet asap for help or maybe someone else on BYC can advise you better. But I believe that time is of the essence. It only takes 3 days before they will die if they ate a lethal amount. I wish you my best. Please keep us updated.

 

[Judy]

Vitamin K is the antidote for warfarin but not all rat poison is warfarin. It would help to find out what the ingredient is.

Maybe you'll be lucky and they ate little enough to survive this; it's certainly possible. Warfarin is taken by humans as a blood thinner. It's not so much a poison as something that you can (rather easily) overdose on.

Good luck.

 

[lakeontariochicks]

Just wanted to update everyone....we had one hen die overnight, she was the smallest and one of the younger ones.
As of today 5 days later, all are alive, and seem to be perfectly healthy. I started loading them up with Kale, Collards and Spinach as soon as I could, then found out that it is one of the new commercial super poisons. I am guessing that they either ate the cracked corn first, and didn't have time to eat any of the poison, or were maybe spitting it out. They really weren't out for long before we discovered what was going on, and got them back in the run.
Egg production has been down, but that could be because of the extremely cold nights we've been having. We have been advised to throw all the eggs for a week, then they should be safe to eat again.
Their free range days are over here though.

This poison does not dissolve, disintegrate, anything. It will always be there, and when it is gone there will be more put out.
Our intent all along has been to free range, but we have built them another run, so at least they have more room to roam. I keep telling them it is safer this way anyway, as we know there is still a fox somewhere near by, although he has not been back in 2 weeks, and a hawk that likes to circle, but has not yet tried to come down to the coop. Scared of our dogs, I guess.
I just wanted everyone to know about this in case anyone lives near an apple orchard and lets their chickens free range to be very, very careful!