- Jul 29, 2011
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I posted this in the chicks section but I think it should be here. I am desperate for answers!
I have previously owned chickens, a flock of 12. I'm on my second flock and this time I bought some chicks at a chicken swap. I've previously always bought through hatcheries. I bought a frizzle and a buff orpington about a month ago. I forget how old they were but the buff died suddenly today and she measured about 6 inches from her head to her tail. She had a full set of feathers. She shared a cage with the frizzle, but I bought some more frizzles, a polish, and a sizzle at a swap about 3 weeks ago. The new chicks were smaller and when I tried to put them all together the original frizzle kept attacking the polish so I kep them separated. I did, however, put the buff in with the other chicks because I wanted them all to get used to each other before putting them out with my other four hens once they were large enough. The buff spent time in both cages this past week. I mention all of this because now i'm SO worried. My buff seemed tired Wednesday night, but I figured it was 10:00 so maybe she was just tired. She seemed ok yesterday morning and we were gone all day, arriving home around midnight. I watered and fed all the animals in the barn and didn't notice any changes in anything, but honestly, I was exhausted and didn't look closely.
This morning the poor buff was dead in her cage. My daughter and I are devastated. She was SO SWEET!!! The frizzle snuggled up to her and pecked at her foot as if to tell her to Get Up!!! When I took the buff outside to inspect her, she had bloody markings on her wings on her bottom. When I looked at the cage, there was a lot of poop, then poop with blood, then larger areas of blood. I feel SO bad that I didn't see this last night. SO BAD!
I cleaned out both cages and boiled the rubber bowls for 6 minutes because there was some blood in the feedbowl. I bleached the plastic cage and just cleared out the wooden cage and put down more hay. The frizzle who's best friend died broke my heart so I stayed with her awhile. She had a spot of blood in one dropping, then a totally white dropping, then a very large dropping with no blood. The spot of blood freaked me out. I'm worried now that our sweet buff died and infected the rest of the birds. What should I do? I will be closely inspecting stools daily from here on out. Should I treat for coccidosus? The frizzle that had the spot of blood is acting totally normal.
Is there anything I should do for my current chicks? Anything I should look out for?
I hope it's ok that I posted this here. My post in the chicks section wasn't getting a lot of traffic and I think this is more of an emergency anyway.
I have previously owned chickens, a flock of 12. I'm on my second flock and this time I bought some chicks at a chicken swap. I've previously always bought through hatcheries. I bought a frizzle and a buff orpington about a month ago. I forget how old they were but the buff died suddenly today and she measured about 6 inches from her head to her tail. She had a full set of feathers. She shared a cage with the frizzle, but I bought some more frizzles, a polish, and a sizzle at a swap about 3 weeks ago. The new chicks were smaller and when I tried to put them all together the original frizzle kept attacking the polish so I kep them separated. I did, however, put the buff in with the other chicks because I wanted them all to get used to each other before putting them out with my other four hens once they were large enough. The buff spent time in both cages this past week. I mention all of this because now i'm SO worried. My buff seemed tired Wednesday night, but I figured it was 10:00 so maybe she was just tired. She seemed ok yesterday morning and we were gone all day, arriving home around midnight. I watered and fed all the animals in the barn and didn't notice any changes in anything, but honestly, I was exhausted and didn't look closely.
This morning the poor buff was dead in her cage. My daughter and I are devastated. She was SO SWEET!!! The frizzle snuggled up to her and pecked at her foot as if to tell her to Get Up!!! When I took the buff outside to inspect her, she had bloody markings on her wings on her bottom. When I looked at the cage, there was a lot of poop, then poop with blood, then larger areas of blood. I feel SO bad that I didn't see this last night. SO BAD!
I cleaned out both cages and boiled the rubber bowls for 6 minutes because there was some blood in the feedbowl. I bleached the plastic cage and just cleared out the wooden cage and put down more hay. The frizzle who's best friend died broke my heart so I stayed with her awhile. She had a spot of blood in one dropping, then a totally white dropping, then a very large dropping with no blood. The spot of blood freaked me out. I'm worried now that our sweet buff died and infected the rest of the birds. What should I do? I will be closely inspecting stools daily from here on out. Should I treat for coccidosus? The frizzle that had the spot of blood is acting totally normal.
Is there anything I should do for my current chicks? Anything I should look out for?
I hope it's ok that I posted this here. My post in the chicks section wasn't getting a lot of traffic and I think this is more of an emergency anyway.