Chickens unwell. 5 have died, many more sick.

[Birdie2019]

With my chickens, I have 4 coops and have have 5 die from 2 of the coops. Many are sick.

1 coop is my Cochin bantam growouts at 12-14.5 weeks old (3 Cochins of that age, 1 Buff Orpington at 6 months, have died). I was not home to see any bodies. My mom buried them.
1 coop is my laying flock (1 red/gold Sexlink, 18 months old died).

My other two coops were Cochin Bantam breeding birds, 1 pair of Blacks, 2 trios of Whites. I separated a pair from each coop on Wednesday, and the Blacks showed symptoms today.

Symptoms:
Pale or purple combs, sneezing, spots on face, weight loss, head shaking, puffed up sick-looking stance. No other symptoms I have noticed.

If someone could please give insight. I need my Black show birds to live, and I’ve had too many promising babies die or fall I’ll. Any help will be appreciated.
I have been told it’s Coccidiosis, Mycoplasma, mites, respiratory, bad feed, other, and I’m not sure it’s any of one of those things.

It could even be a combination of internal parasites, respiratory, and other things. I just don’t know.

The blacks’ first symptoms were the spots on the face. The babies’ were weight loss and pale combs and puffy stance. The laying hens’ were spots on face (I thought it was that they were picking on each other, as some also had scabs).

Sick grow out from Monday. She is still alive, and many more like her.

He is from my discontinued Millie Fleur Cochin Bantam project, and in the laying coop. He is not well either.

 

[The-White-Elephant]

@azygous @Wyorp Rock

 

[LaFleche]

Obviously you have a serious and very contagious disease going on.
I would not lose any more time with guessing games, but call your state vet lab SAP and bring/ send your sickest bird in for professional necropsy.

Keep a closed flock, don't visit any other poultry keeping friends or breeders, don't sell any eggs or birds, don't go to county fairs or similar and always disinfect your chicken boots/wellies thoroughly before and after chicken chores.

Hopefully you will find out soon what you are dealing with

 

[azygous]

Making a list of possible causes of such wide spread illness and then picking the most likely one to treat first will begin to rule out possibilities. This is how most of us without access to vets and testing work it. When the first treatment doesn't produce any improvement, we move onto the next possibility and treat it.

I would begin with the most likely - coccidiosis and treat with Corid, including the drench for the sickest. Have you done this?

The other alternative is to select the sickest, most likely to die bird and take them to an animal testing lab and have them euthanize and do a necropsy. This will get you an accurate diagnosis the quickest, enabling you to start treating and saving the lives of the rest of your flock.

Call this place and ask for the nearest animal testing lab to where you live.
Animal Diagnostics Inc
No reviews · Medical laboratory
Sarasota, FL · In Gulf Haven Condominium · (813) 265-1070

 

[LaFleche]

How are things by now, any updates?

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your losses. Any bodies lost from now on should be kept cool, not frozen, and sent in to your state poultry pathologist for a necropsy. You have a state lab in Kissimmee that does necropsies on a body of a dead chicken. I think also that U of FL in Gainesville may also do them. Here is a link to contact the state vet for a necropsy:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[Myrshine]

I agree 100% that you quit the guessing games and get testing done as soon as possible before you lose them all.

 

[Birdie2019]

No updates yet. All are still alive. Once one dies, we may send it to a necropsy, but I think that may be a while. All seem to be doing really good, actually. Even the young pullets that were very thin are still nice and bright, minus only one or two of them, who do seem pretty fine, too. Ill update y’all if anyone else passes away and/or if we get results from a necropsy.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

What ever happened with the sick birds in your situation, did they all pull through?

 

[Birdie2019]

What ever happened with the sick birds in your situation, did they all pull through?

Roughly half the chicks, maybe a little less, that appeared sick ended up dying. We had at least 20 adults, and only had 3 of them die (one 18 months, one 6 months, one about a year). But from the 19 babies we had (hatched in late Sept/early Oct) , 9 or 10 of them passed away, only one of them being a boy. We lost lots of beloved chicks, but once spring came around it seemed that it had all passed. The last death was a little Cochin Bantam hen in March. Only two that died weren’t Cochin Bantams (a Buff Orpington and a Sexlink).

All I’m hoping is that it isn’t something that will return for years to come.