Entire flock of 50+ chickens became very weak in matter of few days.

[NiketP]

Edit: 7-8 have died now.
Entire flock of chickens became very weak and two of them died. It happened all of a sudden, two days ago they were doing just fine.

1) What type of bird , age and weight
- Chickens mix breeds. Male and Female. Age ranging from months to years. More than 50. Only a few of them seem normal now.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
- They became very quiet and mostly sit around. Eyes have become a bit red and teary and they sneeze. Gape with a harsh sound, I will post a link to a video of this (https://www.mediafire.com/file/0yqtkf9ef16ow52/WhatsApp_Video_2021-05-28_at_08.58.13.mp4/file).

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
- Just a couple of days.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
- Ducks(5) are doing fine. Turkeys(3) are also not doing that great.

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
- None
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
- I have no idea.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
- Regular feed of wheat, rice, etc. they are still eating but very little.

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
- Green and Runny
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
- None

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
- Home treatment

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
-

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
- Enclosed in a coop at night. Roam around the house and backyard in a day. Last day they were so weak they couldn't properly jump off 4-5 feet when I opened the door to let them out of the coop.

 

[DobieLover]

Sorry you are having such a massive problem.
Have you had any of the birds that died necropsied?
How long have you had this flock? Have you added any new birds to it within the last month?
Feeding wheat and rice is not a complete diet at all. Do you feed a poultry feed that is designed for a mixed species flock like you have such as All Flock or Flock Raiser?
What kind of body condition are they in?
How large is the coop you have them in? Do you have multiple coops? You have a very large backyard flock for a single coop unless it is quite large.
Could they have gotten into something toxic on the property?

 

[NiketP]

Sorry you are having such a massive problem.
Have you had any of the birds that died necropsied?
How long have you had this flock? Have you added any new birds to it within the last month?
Feeding wheat and rice is not a complete diet at all. Do you feed a poultry feed that is designed for a mixed species flock like you have such as All Flock or Flock Raiser?
What kind of body condition are they in?
How large is the coop you have them in? Do you have multiple coops? You have a very large backyard flock for a single coop unless it is quite large.
Could they have gotten into something toxic on the property?

Have you had any of the birds that died necropsied?
-No, I am in a rural area and we have no such facilities.
How long have you had this flock? Have you added any new birds to it within the last month?

- I had this flock for around 3 years before that my 100+ chickens died the same way, fine one day and all of the flock of entire 100+ chickens dead within a week. I have had chickens for more than 10 years. I did add a new chicken last month.

Feeding wheat and rice is not a complete diet at all. Do you feed a poultry feed that is designed for a mixed species flock like you have such as All Flock or Flock Raiser?
- I feed chicks feed starter. And chickens Wheat, Rice, Leftovers, Vegetables and once a week chicken feed. They roam around the entire village for feeding. Most neighbours who have less than 10 chickens don't even feed anything chickens go around the village and forage just fine.

What kind of body condition are they in?
- As the chickens just started showing these conditions a few days before the body condition is just fine.

How large is the coop you have them in? Do you have multiple coops? You have a very large backyard flock for a single coop unless it is quite large.
- One large coop two small ones.

Could they have gotten into something toxic on the property?
- I am not entirely sure. As I said they roam around so maybe?

5 more chickens are dead now.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[CHlCKEN]

When you added the new chicken did you quarantine?

 

[Eggcessive]

What is your location in the world? Is exotic Newcastles disease common where you live? Sorry for your loss. Here is a description of Newcastles:
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...ease-information/avian/virulent-newcastle/vnd

 

[NiketP]

What is your location in the world? Is exotic Newcastles disease common where you live? Sorry for your loss. Here is a description of Newcastles:
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...ease-information/avian/virulent-newcastle/vnd

I am in Maharashtra, India. Never heard of this disease before. I'll research it some more. Thanks.

 

[NiketP]

When you added the new chicken did you quarantine?

Only for few days, I'll check with the place where I got it from to see if they are having any issues. I got new ones I am guessing a month or so back.

Edit: It was more like 2 months back. And place where I got it from are not having any issues.

 

[NiketP]

Sadly around 50 are dead now. Only a few are left maybe 10-15. One turkey is alive out of 5 and she too most likely won't make it. Ducks are completely unaffected.

 

[Eggcessive]

Is there a vet in your area that could perform a necropsy on a couple of the bodies?

 

[NiketP]

Is there a vet in your area that could perform a necropsy on a couple of the bodies?

Sadly no. There is a government facility that helps a little with people's livestock but their suggestion was to give chickens glucose syrup. So yeah no access to any vet.