Chickens sick and dying

[DebiH]

My chickens are two and three years old. Two weeks ago I lost a New Hampshire Red that was three weeks old. She had been sitting around for days and then one day was on her side gasping. She really suffered. The Vet cam the next day so I had him look at her. He said she was very thin and had mites. (I lost a New Hampshire Red a few months ago the same way)

We clean the coope and yard and put diatomoatios earth everywhere, sprayed with the lemon oil the vet gave me. I even treated another New Hampshire Red that was thin and looking like she is getting sick with pyrethrum. The vet said he doesn't like to use it, so I treated only the one.

We put worm medicine in the water for round worms and apple cider vinegar in the water for parasites. I also upped there food with a high protein mash.

The vet gave me a prescription for metronidazole. I treated the sick chicken and the only other New Hampshire Red, 5 days 2 times a day .2 mil.

The sick New Hampshire Red chicken is looking much better and is up and walking around. The other New Hampshire Red is now looking very sick. Lying one her side. I don't know if she will make it today.

The very sad news is that this morning an Americana (2 years old) was lying on her side. I brought her out and put her on a towel. She gaped a few times and died. I had seen no signs of sickness.

I have 4 more Americana, The 2 New Hampshire red (1 sick) and 3 Buff cochins bantum hens and one nasty buff cochin bantum rooster.

Does anyone have any ideas of what this might be.

They are not free range now, but they were during the winter (until 3-4 weeks ago). They live at a nursery with gardens, so we keep them in during the months when they could destroy a garden. When free range their first stop was always the bird feeders. One day there were pheasants at the feeder with them.

Please let me know if you have experience with this.

Thanks,

Debi

 

[1muttsfan]

There are many reasons why birds might sicken and die like that. Having a bird autopsied would be best, ideally one very sick or very newly deceased, and kept refrigerated until testing. State labs will often do the autopsies. So sorry about your birds - Mary

 

[DebiH]

Mary,

Thanks for trying. I finally found a veterinarian for birds, about an hour a way. I loaded the car with the one dead Americana (2 years old), 1 sick New Hampshire Red and 1 New Hampshire Red (three years old) who had been sick last week but seemed better after the antibiotics.

It turns out the sick chicken has egg peritonitis. She (the Vet) took two pints of fluid out of her abdomen. She has been resting and is on antibiotics. Three days later she is eating and seeming much better. Ready to start getting up and around. I still have her isolated from the other chickens, but she is hanging out with the humans.

When the Vet completed the autopsy on the dead Americana, she also had egg peritonitis.

Now the mystery is why? Could it be that one rooster - a bantum??

She also found they were gram negative on their feces, so I am treating the whole flock with antiobiotics. I started with Amtrol, but the vet recommended duramycin, so I ordered it and hope it will get here by Monday. I am also adding a nutrient solution to the water.

I am hopeful

Debi

 

[1muttsfan]

Egg peritonitis is an unfortunate result of internal laying. It seems more common in hatchery birds. Unfortunately it is not a great thing for the hen, and can reoccur. This thread has some information on medication that may help prevent your hen from producing eggs, but it is probably expensive. There is quite a bit of information as you read through the entire thread. Hope your hen recovers -

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...tops-hens-with-egg-peritonitis-laying-anymore

This is another thread that talks about EYP

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/565084/egg-yolk-peritonitis-prevention-or-management

 

[Eggcessive]

Since you have a vet, I would collect some fresh early morning droppings in a baggy, and take them to the vet to run a fecal float to look for coccidia and worms. There are some worms besides round worm that may be present that can be serious. Valbazen given 1/2 ml orally to each chicken, then repeated in 10 days will treat most worms. SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer may also be used, but has to be given 5 days in a row to get the difficult worms. The dosage of that is 1 1/4 ml for a 5 lb chicken, 1 1/2 ml for a 7-8 lb chicken. Treat twice a year.
If you have seen mites, then you probably still have them. You have to use something containing permethrin or Sevin dust, and it has to be used every 7 days a few times to get the larvae, besides cleaning out the coop, and also treating that. Mites can cause severe anemia, and are much more serious than lice. Here is some reading about mites:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/08/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification.html
http://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8162.pdf