Chickens sad and not eating!

[TylerT]

I have three barred rocks, who have always been quiet, very sweet and have always look for ways to escape the coop. But for the past few days, when I go to feed them in the morning, they just sit on the ground, with their eyes half-closed and don’t eat. We ran out of chicken food a few days before, so they were served bread and rice for a while until the new bag was delivered. I thought their behavior may be due to the food switch, but they’ve always eaten whatever I give them, and they haven’t eaten in about four days now (they will occasionally peck at some food, but only a few pellets a day. They drink water though) They haven’t eaten anything that’s bad for them recently. I checked them for worms. I checked the area for any predators that might have scared them. And now they aren’t laying. They’re always so curious, scratching around in the run 24/7, but now they have no personality whatsoever. They don’t want to explore the yard, which they always adored. Does anyone know what’s wrong with them? Thank you.

 

[ErikaRI]

Someone else just referred me to this: http://www.poultrydvm.com/views/symptoms.php
Have you tried encouraging them with something really tasty like mealworms or frozen corn on the cob?

 

[dunnmom]

If they had bread and rice only for a few days, you might check their crops for signs of sour crop. How do their combs look? How old are they, and is there any chance they might be beginning to molt? Are they free-range or penned? If they're penned, do you give them grit?

If those things check out, it could have something to do with the food switch, just like you are thinking. If that's the case, they will come around when they get hungry enough.

More replies will likely come to help you get an idea of more possible causes.

 

[TylerT]

ErikaRI, thank you for the link! I tried to give them some treats, and while they are eating them a little bit, they’re still ignoring the chicken food.

 

[TylerT]

I’ve checked their crops, and they don’t seem to have sour crop, thankfully. One’s comb is fine, one’s is a little wilted, but the third’s comb is sagging over her face, and it’s color is becoming darker. They’re exactly one year old,
and are penned. They eat pellets.

 

[aart]

So they willingly ate the bread and rice(cooked I hope) and now won't eat the pellets?
How many days exactly did they eat nothing but bread and rice?
Same pellets as they got before?
What's the MFG date on the feed bag...should be printed on the band at bottom of bag?

 

[dunnmom]

Do their poops look normal? Are there any more feathers in the coop or run than usual? Any appearance of pin feathers? My girls sometimes act depressed and don't eat much when they have a molt coming on, which is why I'm asking about that.

 

[TylerT]

The smallest of the three, the sickest one, passed away this morning - the other two seem to have recovered and are eating, although they are much quieter. The sickest one (Dotsy) was eating yesterday, but only really soft foods, like bread and some pellets we softened by soaking them in water. But this morning she couldn’t stand up, wasn’t eating, and seemed to have trouble breathing. Then she had some sort of seizure and died. I checked, and there wasn’t anything inside her beak that was blocking her digestion.

The other two are just fine now, but I’m worried that if Dotsy was bitten by something poisonous or swallowed something toxic, the others might also get ill. We’re going on vacation very soon, and I’m very worried that we’ll come home to find them deceased.

 

[aart]

Hmm, that's too bad.
There's a chance that they were carrying some kind of disease that was laying dormant and the stress of the 'few' days of bad nutrition(bread/rice) allowed the disease to take over.
In order to find what killed her you'd need to do a necrospy, either yourself to look for obvious issues or better yet by a lab that can do pathology to test for specific disease.

 

[TylerT]

Does anyone know which kind of medication would be best to use?