Ok, I won't repeat what other have said about quarantine practices because at this point it is to late for your flock but I think you get the picture by now.
You certainly do have alot going on so I'll address them one at a time.
1) "In May of last year I bought baby chicks from a swap. Those babies were sick and ended up dying as well as infecting and killing almost all the rest of my flock. There were five roosters left out of 20 birds. 4 of those 5 roosters were butchered quite some time after the whole ordeal.
Question: What were the symptoms of the chicks you got at the swap? By "all the rest of your flock", how many birds and what were their symptoms? Without symptoms and diagnosis it is hard determine if this is related to your current problem. Is the one rooster all you had left from your whole flock and the swap chicks before you got the new chicks and ducks from McMurray?
2)"Then I met another good friend and started getting chickens from her. My other friend has gotten chickens from both of us. Several months ago one of those chickens I got from her was a silkie roo. This roo is so precious to me but he does some odd things. Occasionally he will walk around with his head just bobbling around like one of those bobble-head dolls. I thought it odd but the thought went no further until today."
Question: Where is this silkie housed? In with large fowl, in with other bantams? Silkies especially the ones with the vaulted skull are very suseptible to head trama. Either by being bullied, attacked, jumped on landed on etc. He should be seperated from larger birds and make sure he is getting enough to eat and drink. A good vitamin suppliment that include vitamins A, D and E are important.
Once he recovers he should NOT be housed with larger birds or any bird that may try to bully him.
3)"Then my new-found friend (lets call her Sally) noticed on of my "McMurray ordered" chicks was not acting normal. This Pheonix hen would just sit still and fluff her feathers and was quite light in weight even though she ate and was active. Sally took her home and tried to nurse her to health but there was no change so I just took her back."
I'm assuming "Sally" is the person you speak of earlier that you had gotten birds from? Bit confusing, not sure how many friends we are talking about. I think two??? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Question: What were the symptoms of the phoenix other than sitting and fluffing and weight loss? Any coughing , sneezing etc?
This could be a number of things related or not to the original problem.
Have you ever wormed the phoenix?
4) "Not to long ago my "alpha" rooster died. I assumed it was because he was old (which he was) but now I wonder if he was sick. He went very slowly. He lost some of his enthusiasm and one day I decided to try to pick him up (he NEVER allowed that before). He was not nearly as heavy as he once was. Then one day he was laying on the coop floor and was dead in the morning."
Question: How old was he? Chickens can live a very long time with proper nutrition and husbandry. I think he was sick as well. Had he ever been wormed?
5) "Nothing much happened for awhile after that. Then i had 2 birds start sneezing. I began feeding garlic. (Btw I make a regular habit of feeding garlic and acv)
Question: How long is a while? How long after the rooster died did this start?
6) "I got another rooster from Sally. I think I have discovered that he has worms. He is in a seperate area from the rest of my flock (all but two hens 2 breed). Now here's my real turmoil. Since Sunday, I have discovered worms in the stool where this rooster is, I have found bugs on him and on one of my youngest pullets, my phoenix hen I mentioned a while back has suddenly and drastically taken a turn for the worse, and two of my young birds have "sticky" eyes.
The phoenix hen has quite eating and is now acting the same way my "alpha" rooster acted shortly before his death. Aaaah! I am readyy to pull my hair out.
Question: What do the worms look like? What color, length, diameter etc?
So is he housed with the two hens?
As far as Bugs....... What do you mean by bugs? Lice, Mites ??????
What color are they, how big are they and where are they located on the bird??
If they are the northern fowl mite they will congregate around the eyes and make them look sunken in and crusty.
NUMBER ONE, get some Poultry dust and pour a bunch in an old nylon sock. Twist the sock and then flip it back so you have two layers of nylon with the dust inside. Take each bird ( I would do the whole flock) and use it like a powder puff and puff it all over the bird, under wings, on the but, all over. Just make sure you don't get any in the eyes or mouth. Northern fowl mites are very common here in the northern states and here in Wisconsin, They are very very common in the winter months and it will seem like an explosion when they hit.Wild birds can infect your chickens. They especially like the crest of silkies and other crested chickens. They will prey on weak and sick birds and can be deadly. Repeat the dusting 7 days later to kill the young mites that have hatched from the eggs that the dust will do nothing for.
As for worming like another poster said. First deworm with the safest wormer which is Wazine in their drinking water. Repeat again 7 days later. Then you can go to the stronger wormers if you think there is still a problem. Reason for using the milder form first is that if you kill to many with the stronger meds to many worms will die off in the chicken and can do great harm even killing the chicken.
A better description of the worms and bugs will help !
I see that your chickens have free ranged, correct. Any chicken that eats bugs, ie cockroaches, grasshoppers,beetles, slugs, snails, earth worms, sand hoppers, you get the picture, are all suseptible to several types of worms and is unavoidable making it of utmost importance to feed a balanced diet to ensure a good imune system.
From the Chicken health handbook, by Gail Damerow:
"Chickens that eat primarily animal protien are more resistant to round worms than chickens fed primarily plant protien.
Signs of large round worm are pale head, droopiness, weight loss or slow growth, emaciation, and diarrha. In severe infestation, the intestines become plugged with worms causing death. Even a somewhat mild infestation may be devestating when combined with some other disease, particulary coccidiosis or infectious bronchitis."
BTW The Chicken Health Handbook written by Gail Damerow and Storeys guide to Raising chickens also by Gail are two books I thing every chicken owner should have. You might want to look into those as well as using this wonderfull forum to learn more about chicken keeping.
7) "I have a mom hen with her 1 baby in a cage in my basement as well as three other cages with the three sickest birds... Btw, the youngest baby with the bugs (I think mites) is one of the ones with the sticky eyes."
First off, those sick birds should be isolated away from any healthy birds ESPECIALLY young birds or chicks. If it is mites that could very well be causing the crusty sticky eyes. See my comment on #6
8)"I just began feeding a daily regimen of flax, fiber (psyllium husk), garlic, and DE. What I usually feed is a combination of oats with a little corn as well as kitchen scraps. I also feed oyster shell and have been feeding grit since winter started. I used to feed rye also but the chickens didn't seem to like it. Over the summer I fed wheat I had planted."
REPLY: If I am understanding this correctly you are feeding a homemade mixture of mainly oats, a little corn and have added flax and fiber and Oyster shell ???
I would have a REAL hard time believing that this hasn't influenced the health of your chickens. They need more than this especially here in the cold winters of Wisconsin. I hope you are feeding free choice (meaning all they can eat) !! Table scrapes are not going to add enough of the necessary vitamins and mineral that they need to THRIVE and have a healthy immune system. Oyster shell in itself won't do it's job without other vitamins and minerals. Are you adding any supplements other than the garlic and acv???
I would quite wasting your money on the garlic and acv and buy a good brand of layer feed and FEED FREE CHOICE plus add oyster shell and grit free choice. Healthy table snacks are ok plus you can even feed your chickens any surplus of eggs you have (cooked of course) You didn't mention a slow down on eggs so I'm assuming any laying hens you have are laying good hard shelled eggs???????
If you are trying to go the organic way there are custom made mixes available at most feed stores that should work good for you.
8) "I believe this may have come from the pile up of litter that I allowed and sounds like that could have caused aspergillosis (brooder pneumonia). the coop has been cleaned a few times since then."
AGAIN: If this was the cause a healthy free choice diet will help any weakened birds fight off infection or damage caused by the amonia.
9) "I have traded birds with my two friends too many times and think this added to the flock stress "
Reply: You are right. It is very very stressful when a bird enters an new flock. They have to reestablish the whole flock pecking order each time not to mention the new birds being vulnerable to attacks and being kept from food and water which is especially important to keep them healthy and in this kind of weather free choice food is a must.
10)"Also Sally has one roo with a terrible case of mites and had a couple of hens die recently. My other friend has not had any birds die of unknown causes since summer."
Reply: First off, what does "Sally's" birds having mites have to do with your situation? Confused here.
If she had a couple of hens die recently do you know from what??? Isn't "Sally" the one who took in your sick and weak phoenix? Perhaps your phoenix infected her flock??? Another reason you are correct and came to the realization that you traded birds to many times. Unfortunately you will never know who gave who what now. But you did say your other friend has not had any birds die since summer. I'm assuming those birds were the chicks you got from the swap? Meaning that the birds that she got from "Sally" are fine??
I would tend to conclude that the phoenix may have started the whole chain of events at "Sally's"??? Just an observation from what I've read here. It is a bit hard to follow but I think I got it ????
Sound like you have a true chicken friend willing to comprimise her flock to help out a sick chicken but it appears that the phoenix may have introduced something to her flock. Another lesson learned.
11) " I have yet to hear back from her if she found worms or bugs in her flock. What do I do?"
Reply: It doesn't really matter if her birds have worms or "bugs". What matters is that YOUR birds do and you need to treat it promplty or you are going to continue losing birds.
In my honest opinion your birds are stressed, lacking proper nutrition thus creating weakened immune system which is making them suseptible to every tiny thing they come into contact with.
Concentrate on getting your own birds before looking to place the blame on "Sally" or anyone else you may have traded birds with. Let this be a valuable lesson in chicken keeping.Now move forward with the knowledge you have and concentrate on healing your chickens.
12) "Does anyone think these cases are linked together? Where could I have picked all this stuff up from?"
Reply: Yes and No, Good nutrition and coop management are number one allowing your chickens to fight off infection, worms and "bugs".
Doesn't really matter now where it came from. What matters is how to fix it and move forward.
13) "Oh, Sorry I forgot to mention that the baby chicks from the swap had sticky runny eyes and my adults tht died had swollen eyes."
Reply: Sounds to me like the swap chicks may have started this whole chain of events.
Sticky running eyes and swollen eyes could in fact be the same disease just presenting itself differently due to the age of the birds. Or it could be you had two different diseases going on. Could be bacterial or viral. Hard to say if you didn't have a necrospy done.
So as you probably now realize there is alot that can go wrong in the world of keeping chickens. The number one rule as far as My coop goes. Keep a closed flock and if you've had birds die find out the cause before you bring in a replacement.
Just my 2 cents.
Good Luck and do keep us posted !!!
You certainly do have alot going on so I'll address them one at a time.
1) "In May of last year I bought baby chicks from a swap. Those babies were sick and ended up dying as well as infecting and killing almost all the rest of my flock. There were five roosters left out of 20 birds. 4 of those 5 roosters were butchered quite some time after the whole ordeal.
Question: What were the symptoms of the chicks you got at the swap? By "all the rest of your flock", how many birds and what were their symptoms? Without symptoms and diagnosis it is hard determine if this is related to your current problem. Is the one rooster all you had left from your whole flock and the swap chicks before you got the new chicks and ducks from McMurray?
2)"Then I met another good friend and started getting chickens from her. My other friend has gotten chickens from both of us. Several months ago one of those chickens I got from her was a silkie roo. This roo is so precious to me but he does some odd things. Occasionally he will walk around with his head just bobbling around like one of those bobble-head dolls. I thought it odd but the thought went no further until today."
Question: Where is this silkie housed? In with large fowl, in with other bantams? Silkies especially the ones with the vaulted skull are very suseptible to head trama. Either by being bullied, attacked, jumped on landed on etc. He should be seperated from larger birds and make sure he is getting enough to eat and drink. A good vitamin suppliment that include vitamins A, D and E are important.
Once he recovers he should NOT be housed with larger birds or any bird that may try to bully him.
3)"Then my new-found friend (lets call her Sally) noticed on of my "McMurray ordered" chicks was not acting normal. This Pheonix hen would just sit still and fluff her feathers and was quite light in weight even though she ate and was active. Sally took her home and tried to nurse her to health but there was no change so I just took her back."
I'm assuming "Sally" is the person you speak of earlier that you had gotten birds from? Bit confusing, not sure how many friends we are talking about. I think two??? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Question: What were the symptoms of the phoenix other than sitting and fluffing and weight loss? Any coughing , sneezing etc?
This could be a number of things related or not to the original problem.
Have you ever wormed the phoenix?
4) "Not to long ago my "alpha" rooster died. I assumed it was because he was old (which he was) but now I wonder if he was sick. He went very slowly. He lost some of his enthusiasm and one day I decided to try to pick him up (he NEVER allowed that before). He was not nearly as heavy as he once was. Then one day he was laying on the coop floor and was dead in the morning."
Question: How old was he? Chickens can live a very long time with proper nutrition and husbandry. I think he was sick as well. Had he ever been wormed?
5) "Nothing much happened for awhile after that. Then i had 2 birds start sneezing. I began feeding garlic. (Btw I make a regular habit of feeding garlic and acv)
Question: How long is a while? How long after the rooster died did this start?
6) "I got another rooster from Sally. I think I have discovered that he has worms. He is in a seperate area from the rest of my flock (all but two hens 2 breed). Now here's my real turmoil. Since Sunday, I have discovered worms in the stool where this rooster is, I have found bugs on him and on one of my youngest pullets, my phoenix hen I mentioned a while back has suddenly and drastically taken a turn for the worse, and two of my young birds have "sticky" eyes.
The phoenix hen has quite eating and is now acting the same way my "alpha" rooster acted shortly before his death. Aaaah! I am readyy to pull my hair out.
Question: What do the worms look like? What color, length, diameter etc?
So is he housed with the two hens?
As far as Bugs....... What do you mean by bugs? Lice, Mites ??????
What color are they, how big are they and where are they located on the bird??
If they are the northern fowl mite they will congregate around the eyes and make them look sunken in and crusty.
NUMBER ONE, get some Poultry dust and pour a bunch in an old nylon sock. Twist the sock and then flip it back so you have two layers of nylon with the dust inside. Take each bird ( I would do the whole flock) and use it like a powder puff and puff it all over the bird, under wings, on the but, all over. Just make sure you don't get any in the eyes or mouth. Northern fowl mites are very common here in the northern states and here in Wisconsin, They are very very common in the winter months and it will seem like an explosion when they hit.Wild birds can infect your chickens. They especially like the crest of silkies and other crested chickens. They will prey on weak and sick birds and can be deadly. Repeat the dusting 7 days later to kill the young mites that have hatched from the eggs that the dust will do nothing for.
As for worming like another poster said. First deworm with the safest wormer which is Wazine in their drinking water. Repeat again 7 days later. Then you can go to the stronger wormers if you think there is still a problem. Reason for using the milder form first is that if you kill to many with the stronger meds to many worms will die off in the chicken and can do great harm even killing the chicken.
A better description of the worms and bugs will help !
I see that your chickens have free ranged, correct. Any chicken that eats bugs, ie cockroaches, grasshoppers,beetles, slugs, snails, earth worms, sand hoppers, you get the picture, are all suseptible to several types of worms and is unavoidable making it of utmost importance to feed a balanced diet to ensure a good imune system.
From the Chicken health handbook, by Gail Damerow:
"Chickens that eat primarily animal protien are more resistant to round worms than chickens fed primarily plant protien.
Signs of large round worm are pale head, droopiness, weight loss or slow growth, emaciation, and diarrha. In severe infestation, the intestines become plugged with worms causing death. Even a somewhat mild infestation may be devestating when combined with some other disease, particulary coccidiosis or infectious bronchitis."
BTW The Chicken Health Handbook written by Gail Damerow and Storeys guide to Raising chickens also by Gail are two books I thing every chicken owner should have. You might want to look into those as well as using this wonderfull forum to learn more about chicken keeping.
7) "I have a mom hen with her 1 baby in a cage in my basement as well as three other cages with the three sickest birds... Btw, the youngest baby with the bugs (I think mites) is one of the ones with the sticky eyes."
First off, those sick birds should be isolated away from any healthy birds ESPECIALLY young birds or chicks. If it is mites that could very well be causing the crusty sticky eyes. See my comment on #6
8)"I just began feeding a daily regimen of flax, fiber (psyllium husk), garlic, and DE. What I usually feed is a combination of oats with a little corn as well as kitchen scraps. I also feed oyster shell and have been feeding grit since winter started. I used to feed rye also but the chickens didn't seem to like it. Over the summer I fed wheat I had planted."
REPLY: If I am understanding this correctly you are feeding a homemade mixture of mainly oats, a little corn and have added flax and fiber and Oyster shell ???
I would have a REAL hard time believing that this hasn't influenced the health of your chickens. They need more than this especially here in the cold winters of Wisconsin. I hope you are feeding free choice (meaning all they can eat) !! Table scrapes are not going to add enough of the necessary vitamins and mineral that they need to THRIVE and have a healthy immune system. Oyster shell in itself won't do it's job without other vitamins and minerals. Are you adding any supplements other than the garlic and acv???
I would quite wasting your money on the garlic and acv and buy a good brand of layer feed and FEED FREE CHOICE plus add oyster shell and grit free choice. Healthy table snacks are ok plus you can even feed your chickens any surplus of eggs you have (cooked of course) You didn't mention a slow down on eggs so I'm assuming any laying hens you have are laying good hard shelled eggs???????
If you are trying to go the organic way there are custom made mixes available at most feed stores that should work good for you.
8) "I believe this may have come from the pile up of litter that I allowed and sounds like that could have caused aspergillosis (brooder pneumonia). the coop has been cleaned a few times since then."
AGAIN: If this was the cause a healthy free choice diet will help any weakened birds fight off infection or damage caused by the amonia.
9) "I have traded birds with my two friends too many times and think this added to the flock stress "
Reply: You are right. It is very very stressful when a bird enters an new flock. They have to reestablish the whole flock pecking order each time not to mention the new birds being vulnerable to attacks and being kept from food and water which is especially important to keep them healthy and in this kind of weather free choice food is a must.
10)"Also Sally has one roo with a terrible case of mites and had a couple of hens die recently. My other friend has not had any birds die of unknown causes since summer."
Reply: First off, what does "Sally's" birds having mites have to do with your situation? Confused here.
If she had a couple of hens die recently do you know from what??? Isn't "Sally" the one who took in your sick and weak phoenix? Perhaps your phoenix infected her flock??? Another reason you are correct and came to the realization that you traded birds to many times. Unfortunately you will never know who gave who what now. But you did say your other friend has not had any birds die since summer. I'm assuming those birds were the chicks you got from the swap? Meaning that the birds that she got from "Sally" are fine??
I would tend to conclude that the phoenix may have started the whole chain of events at "Sally's"??? Just an observation from what I've read here. It is a bit hard to follow but I think I got it ????
Sound like you have a true chicken friend willing to comprimise her flock to help out a sick chicken but it appears that the phoenix may have introduced something to her flock. Another lesson learned.
11) " I have yet to hear back from her if she found worms or bugs in her flock. What do I do?"
Reply: It doesn't really matter if her birds have worms or "bugs". What matters is that YOUR birds do and you need to treat it promplty or you are going to continue losing birds.
In my honest opinion your birds are stressed, lacking proper nutrition thus creating weakened immune system which is making them suseptible to every tiny thing they come into contact with.
Concentrate on getting your own birds before looking to place the blame on "Sally" or anyone else you may have traded birds with. Let this be a valuable lesson in chicken keeping.Now move forward with the knowledge you have and concentrate on healing your chickens.
12) "Does anyone think these cases are linked together? Where could I have picked all this stuff up from?"
Reply: Yes and No, Good nutrition and coop management are number one allowing your chickens to fight off infection, worms and "bugs".
Doesn't really matter now where it came from. What matters is how to fix it and move forward.
13) "Oh, Sorry I forgot to mention that the baby chicks from the swap had sticky runny eyes and my adults tht died had swollen eyes."
Reply: Sounds to me like the swap chicks may have started this whole chain of events.
Sticky running eyes and swollen eyes could in fact be the same disease just presenting itself differently due to the age of the birds. Or it could be you had two different diseases going on. Could be bacterial or viral. Hard to say if you didn't have a necrospy done.
So as you probably now realize there is alot that can go wrong in the world of keeping chickens. The number one rule as far as My coop goes. Keep a closed flock and if you've had birds die find out the cause before you bring in a replacement.
Just my 2 cents.
Good Luck and do keep us posted !!!
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