Dead Chicken!

[smk2010]

I'm not sure what is going on. Last night I went to go put the girls to bed and noticed one of my RIR hens was walking around real slowly on the ground. I went to catch her thinking that she would run away like usual. She didn't - she just stood still and let me pick her up and when I set her back down a minute later she almost fell over. I knew she was a goner at that point but I gave her some electrolytes just in case, dusted her vent with a little lice powder since I noticed she had a few crawlies in that area and then put her in a nest box in another pen. As figured - she was dead by morning. No other hens have died yet but one of my broody EE's has stopped laying on her eggs and has moved to an empty nest box. She too seemed kind of lethargic. After closer inspection I noticed that she also had some crawly critters around her vent area so I dusted her and gave her some electrolytes too.


I started to think I might have a louse/lice infestation on my chickens. Though I only noticed them around the vent area on a few chickens, after finding the sick RIR and the crawly critters on two hens, I decided to do a quick light dusting of the nest boxes and all of the girls rear ends. I also put some dust in their dirt holes on the ground where they take their dust baths. How long does it take to get rid of them and if the louse/lice powder does not work what works the best? Is it possible if a chicken is too infested that they could die from it? I also wormed them all about a 2 months ago and then again about three weeks ago. Could the dead hen have been killed by the wormer after three weeks? About a week after worming them egg production finally picked up but I have noticed that this week it is back down again. I normally get between 12-16 eggs a day (19 layers...18 now :-( ) but this past week it has only been 9 or 10 a day.


Is there any signs I should be looking for, besides more dead hens, in case there is a disease issue or something contagious going around??
I sell my eggs to the public - should I stop selling them for a few days or wait and see if any more chickens come down sick or die? We eat the eggs ourselves and have noticed no ill effects.

Thanks Again Everybody!!!

 

[dawg53]

Lice are more of an irritant than mites. Mites suck blood causing anemia in chickens, then death. What are the ages of your chickens and what wormer did you use?
Here's a link to help you identify what you're dealing with (external parasites.)
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140

 

[smk2010]

My chickens range in age from 4 years to 1 year. The hen that died was 2 years old. The wormers I used were: first time was Wazine and the 2nd wormer was about 3/4 tablespoon of Ivermectin disolved in water then mixed into 4 pounds of layer pellets.

 

[smk2010]

Since I do not know what killed the hen - would it be better to burry her or wrap her up good and throw her away? Sorry if that sounds cold. She was not one of my named chickens and was just one of the girls. My biggest worry is having the rest of my chickens or livestock get sick too.

 

[dawg53]

Since I do not know what killed the hen - would it be better to burry her or wrap her up good and throw her away? Sorry if that sounds cold. She was not one of my named chickens and was just one of the girls. My biggest worry is having the rest of my chickens or livestock get sick too.

It's up to you how you wish to dispose the carcass.
Since you gave them ivermectin, that would kill mites. Ivermectin does not kill chicken lice. Chicken lice do not suck blood. Sevin dust will kill the lice pronto. Redust your birds again in 7-10 days. Dust the coop, nests and roosts as well....repeat in 7-10 days.
As far as the 2 year old hen that died; I'm not sure. She couldve been eggbound or internal layer, toxic worm overload from the wazine, heart failure, or simply failure to thrive.

 

[smk2010]

Thank you Dawg53. I will keep a close eye on rest of the girls and hope for the best. I will also be sure to keep dusting every 7-10 days until I no longer see anything on them. The coop is ready for its spring cleaning anyways so hopefully that will help to kill off the lice or whatever those crawly critters are. Thanks Again!