Consolidated Kansas

[suburbchic]

Well, I was planning on posting for the virtual coop tour but first I found another hen dead this morning. Now I am worried about whats going on.
The eleven hens and rooster left all seem fine. I can say the egg production has been down since the first hen died. I also have fed egg shells back to them versus oyster shell (is that not as good?) Is the heat enough to cause this or start supplementing with more protiens, gatoraide or ???
I have been reading on all sorts of issues trying to find out whats going on. I have both hens, one frozen and one in the fridge. The vet said it would cost $120 to autopsy one at k-state and I'm kinda thinking I'll try doing one myself even though all I know at this point is what I've learned here and from some you tube vet videos. I don't think they were egg bound becouse there not swollen at all which may be different after looking inside. I read about the discoloration of combs but didn't notice any change there, I also read about genetic problems buying chicks from companies (which we did).

My question for all you wonderful smart people is have you done any of your own autopsies and if I take lots of pictures would you be willing to help diagnose possibilities?

 

[cherwill]

I had two hens from the same the same batch die last year. The first one we didn't see what happened, but the second appeared very weak one morning and died within hours. We were told by every vet in our town, and the extension office representative, that no one treats chickens anymore. Most chickens are raised by corporations who have their own corporation vets and there aren't enough people like all of us raising our little home flocks to make it worthwhile for non-corporation vets to deal with it. I checked online, but the most help I received was right here at BYC. Even then, our two hens didn't seem to fit any set of symptoms well enough to say that was the problem. Every professional we spoke to basically said, "Well, it happens." The third hen we got with that batch is still alive and kicking, as are the rest of our flock (7 total), so we're thankful for that.

 

[suburbchic]

Thanks cherwill, don't ya just love when things come down to the all mighty dollar! How old were your hens?
I also wanted to mention that I added a fan in the barn, if that makes any difference. The thermometer inside was at 102 yesterday afternoon.
One other thought was that I found her directly below the roost and I know it sounds silly but have you ever heard of a chicken killing itself falling off one? maybe if she had a heart attack?? We should be doing the autopsy this afternoon.

 

[cherwill]

Suburbchic, we were given that group of hens by a friend whose girls had hatched the eggs for a 4H project. They were less than 6 months old at the time. I'm guessing it must have been either genetic and that third one was lucky, or maybe something they'd been exposed to before they were given to us. None of our other birds showed any symptoms, so it probably wasn't easily contagious. How old are yours?

I don't really know what their heat tolerance is. It got pretty hot last year, but our birds just didn't do much in the afternoons. They pant, but we kept lots of water and shade available to them. We didn't have any fans or air conditioning set up for them, but we did give them cool treats in the afternoon -- stuff like watermelon and yogurt, and we sometimes put an ice cube or two in the water. That's more than my husband's parents ever did, and they raised chickens for years here in the Kansas heat. They don't remember ever losing any to heat, but who really knows?

I hope you don't lose any more. I'm crazy about my chickens; it's hard to see them die and not know what you can do to help. Please keep us updated on anything you learn. I feel like there's not enough help out here and any information we can share with each other is going to be a good thing.

 

[HEChicken]

Suburbchic, sorry to hear about the issues you are having. It is frustrating when they die for no apparent reason. There are a lot of things that affect them that are so hard to ID. I had a 9-month-old BO get sick a year or so ago that didn't fit any set of symptoms of anything I could find. After a few days she suddenly got better and went right back to laying. Six months later she showed the exact same symptoms for the same length of time before returning to normal again. A month ago my RIR did the exact same thing. The frustrating part is that no Google search has ever come up with an explanation for what may cause these symptoms and when I posted them on BYC I didn't get any answers that seemed to match either. So even with all the collective experience, sometimes they still stump us.

To answer your question about the egg shells, I can't imagine that is the problem. I fed mine egg shells to begin with but when I was running low (I give away a lot of eggs to friends and family and didn't get those shells back to feed to them) I bought a bag of oyster shell. Let me just say that was a huge waste of money because they won't touch it. They love the egg shells and would eat them out of my hand like they were a treat but no matter how I tried to serve oyster shell, they would never eat it. Most of the time I am able to feed layer feed so they don't really need the supplement but occasionally when I have new chicks join the flock, I have to feed Flock Raiser until the little ones are old enough for layer feed, and during that time I always use egg shells as supplement. I am not alone - you will find MANY people here who use that as their method of supplementing calcium and I am not aware of any physical side effects to doing so.

As for the autopsy....while you may be able to conduct your own autopsy and even post pics, you will not have the ability to test blood and tissues for disease or toxins, so your autopsy would be incomplete and perhaps unsatisfying in providing answers.

Based on what you have observed so far, I would be most concerned about heat as a cause. Since chickens don't sweat, I don't know how effective a fan would be at cooling them down. Mine certainly survived temps higher than 102 in past summers but since they free-range they are able to find the coolest spot to spend the hot hours of the day - under trees, in dust baths etc. If yours are confined and have less opportunities to escape the heat then heat exhaustion or stroke *could* be a cause of death. One thing I do for mine on the hottest days is to make sure they have ice cold water. I take a 1-gallon milk container, fill it 7/8 full with water and stick it in the freezer overnight. Around 1pm each day, I take it out of the freezer and put the whole thing in their water bowl (they have a rubber 2-gallon water container). This cools the water and a gallon of ice takes so long to melt that it keeps it cool until 8-9pm. After they've gone to bed I rinse off the outside and put it back in the freezer for the next day. They definitely seem to appreciate this and crowd around to get a drink of cool water as soon as I take it outside each afternoon.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
Do they seem thin? feel their keel bone where the breastmeat is.

 

[suburbchic]

They are all from the same hatchery and are 11 months old.
HEchicken I guess it does seem unhelpful to have a fan, just thought it would cool the barn down some.
We leave the barn door open during the day but close it at night to be predator proof. There are two vents behind the roost and one in the barn door about 2x2 each. I often wonder if that is enough ventilation. I do add frozen water bottles to the watchers, your right about them looking forward that. I have been trying to get a tractor built maybe this will get it done faster. Your right about the autopsy too,thanks, I just thought we could see if it was physical and if not then maybe we could send the 2nd one in.
ByNatureFarms I can feel the keel bone but I don't know how much fat they should have there..? Or feel there. Thanks for all the help. Ready to not be so frustrated.

 

[chicken danz]

I lost 3 prize polish bantams a couple days ago and I'm sure it was the heat. Even with ventilation the air wasn't moving and it got terribly hot in that house. The chickens stayed in the house rather than going outside in the sun. I now have another opening with screen wire over it that will have to be closed for winter, a fan on a stand and shade cloth over their run. They all did just great last summer but my birds are having a hard time now. I have water available every where and some of the chickens are even just standing in it to cool off. Let's pray for rain and a cool down!

 

[chicken danz]

On another note I watched at Hoarders episode about a chicken hoarder. I am sure it was the one that was mentioned on here a while back. It made me sick. So now I am thinking I need to get rid of some more birds. Whatever I do I don't want my birds to be in crowded dirty unhealthy surroundings. I honestly care about them and their welfare.

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
A chicken hoarder? I've never heard of that! I guess anything is possible. I don't watch TV, so I do miss out on some of that stuff. Gosh. I'll bet that was an awful mess.

I separated my big BCM rooster from the hens. I wasn't hatching any more, and he is so rough on them they all look like naked necks. Anyway, I noticed he wasn't eating or drinking AT ALL after I put him in the wire cage. He was starting to sleep a lot and his eyes looked sunken and I'm sure he was dehydrated.

I put him in a larger pen in the barn with one of my hubby's goats. We will see how he does in there. I'm afraid if I give him just one hen or two he would run them to death. I would hate to loose him, too. He is HUGE. I call him Goliath!