Early necropsy results point towards bacterial infection leading to sepsis, what about my other birds?

[Pzamanstrulv]

I’ll try to TL;DR but this has been complicated. I had a rooster (silver death layer, 19 weeks) exhibiting respiratory symptoms(sneezing, gurgling) and very quickly stopped crowing, seemed lethargic and depressed. I started him on tylan 50 but only got 3 doses in him before he rapidly went downhill. He was breathing with his mouth open and then passed shortly after. Preliminary results from the necropsy are pointing towards a bacterial infection that turned septic but they are doing tissue cultures to try to pin point the cause. We took him to be necropsied because we had another loss recently -

A few weeks ago we lost a newer to us bird, (Hen #1, year old blue ameraucana) who we were told had stopped laying for the Winter. We had her for a very short amount of time before I found a soft shelled egg that she had laid. The next day, she laid a very thin shelled egg. The day after that she spent most of the day in and out of the nesting box, or standing in corners looking depressed. She started drinking a huge amount of water, and was leaking water from her mouth but did not have the sour crop smell. She went from being fine to barely able to stand so I brought her inside wondering if she was egg bound and got her in an epsom bath but she ended up having a seizure and passing in my arms. She had no respiratory symptoms.

The rooster passed on Sunday, and shortly after we noticed that 2 of our other birds are acting off. Hen #2 is an Easter egger, approximately 1 year old. She laid a soft shelled egg over the weekend while on the roost for the night but I was not concerned at the time because it happens every now and then, but she has not laid since. She does occasionally sit in the nesting boxes for a few minutes. She has no respiratory symptoms, is not breathing hard, no swelling/discharge, but she’s just not acting herself. She is standing around in corners and being very quiet. She is still eating/drinking though maybe not as much, but is not losing weight. Her crop feels normal.

Hen #3 is a 15w Ayam Cemani. She has no respiratory symptoms, but we’ve noticed that she has been acting very sleepy, closing her eyes while standing, immediately falling asleep when being held but otherwise eating/acting normal.

I decided to treat with corid just in case, I have seen some poop with intestinal lining so I was hoping that it could be a cocci outbreak. It’s been very wet and damp here, but have now received the results that they think it’s bacterial, so I’m guessing it’s not cocci, although I’m going to finish the course of corid.

They are fed a locally made feed, 18% protein. There are oyster shells available for the layers. I was in the process of cleaning out the coop when my rooster started gasping. We do the deep litter method but it’s been so crazy damp here that I had to get rid of a ton of bedding because it was starting to smell.

Any guesses as to what is going on, if I have some sort of treatable illness or a bunch of bad luck, it would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully this makes some amount of sense, I’ve barely slept this last week due to stress because I’ve been so worried about my birds(I also have an injured gosling I’m taking care of..).

 

[azygous]

There can be bacterial components to coccidiosis. How soon after bringing the chickens home did they begin to get sick? Putting mature chickens on soil they have no resistance to can result in them being vulnerable to the coccidia there. The incubation is around seven days.

But since you mentioned wet weather and damp, smelly bedding, you may also have a mold problem. Mold has an awful odor and chickens are very vulnerable to the mold toxin. It can cause respiratory illness as well as nervous system disorders - imbalance, lameness, etc.

It's possible you have more than one thing causing these chickens to sicken and die. If your water source is well water, high iron content can cause bacterial infection.

 

[Pzamanstrulv]

There can be bacterial components to coccidiosis. How soon after bringing the chickens home did they begin to get sick? Putting mature chickens on soil they have no resistance to can result in them being vulnerable to the coccidia there. The incubation is around seven days.

But since you mentioned wet weather and damp, smelly bedding, you may also have a mold problem. Mold has an awful odor and chickens are very vulnerable to the mold toxin. It can cause respiratory illness as well as nervous system disorders - imbalance, lameness, etc.

It's possible you have more than one thing causing these chickens to sicken and die. If your water source is well water, high iron content can cause bacterial infection.

We do have well water. It is run through a water softener system though. I’ve checked very well for mold. Every thing is very damp but I did not find any mold at all in the bedding, roosts, corners, I’ve checked, emptied and washed all of their feeders/waterers several times. We had the new chicken for a couple weeks when she started to get sick. The other chickens we’ve either had for awhile or were hatched here.

My birds actually just all got startled by something outside(my camera didn’t catch it, but caught them freaking out). I went to check and another chicken was sneezing like crazy with bubbly eyes suddenly. She’s been totally fine until now. I’d love to know what is going on. She’s totally fine now, no more sneezing and her eyes are normal but I’m starting to wonder if it could be mycoplasma.