Fine last night - dead this morning

[Touche]

I had an Ameraucana that was around 27-32 weeks old die last night. Found her this morning, but I was out there last night, and she was running around, eating, and drinking. She was not laying yet.

The only thing out of the ordinary is that I noticed my other hens were picking on her quite a bit this last week, chasing her from food and pecking at her in the roost but as soon as it would get dark they'd all settle in together. I do have multiple spots for them to eat and also when they were resting, she was eating. She was also the most lively of the bunch, she was always running around and being sneaky.

It must have happened close to daylight as I was out there at daylight. Her body was still slightly warm. I inspected her crop, vent, under the wings, legs, and body for any signs of mites/lice, damage, a crop not emptying, swelling of the body. She was on her side with her feet straight behind her with watery milky white poop behind her.

Also to note: I ordered 4 pullets online to add to the 4 hens I already had. I've had the new pullets since the second week of October. One other one got lethargic, we took her to the vet, and he found nothing, prescribed an antibiotic, and we tube-fed her for a week before she passed away. The hatchery said they were vaccinated for Mareks.

Any thoughts on what may have happened?

 

[Iluveggers]

I am very sorry for your losses. My first thought with lethargy is Coccidosis. What does their poop look like? You could do a treatment of Corid to be preventative as there is no issue of giving the medication if they don’t have Coccidosis. How old were the new pullets when you got them? Where did you get them from?

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry. The only way to know why she died is to have your state vet perform a necropsy on Monday. Keep her body cold, not frozen and send it in after talking with the lab. It is always a risk bringing in new started birds to an existing flock. Hopefully, this was just some natural death, but it helps to know if anything might have been wrong or contagious. Here is a link to state vets:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[Touche]

I am very sorry for your lossee. My first thought with lethargy is Coccidosis. What does their poop look like? You could do a treatment of Corid to be preventative as there is no issue of giving the medication if they don’t have Coccidosis. How old were the new pullets when you got them? Where did you get them from?

Her last poop, at least I suspect it was hers was water-milky white. In November when the other chicken was lethargic, we immediately started treating the rest of the flock with Corid. The vet did analyze the poop of that chicken and found no signs of Coccidosis.

I did start a maintenance dose of Corid again this morning.

 

[bhawk-23]

I’m sorry this happened. I’ve been there and it is really tough. I do hope it was a natural cause you just couldn’t see.

But I definitely second the necropsy. We had one because same situation and found out a lot of good info and how to move forward with treatment for our flock.