Help 3 dead and counting what to do and what is is! please help asap

[firefighting4u]

oops ^ BUT WAS WASHED AS WELL ^ is what that was suppose to say! oh and my mistake I have them on sulmet started this morning not the antibiotics as earlier thought but I do have the antibiotics just in case the sulmet does not help. Yes I do know it is frowned upon to treat blindly but In my defense I did as much research as I could before leaving to get "something to help" and I called 6 local vets which was a joke they had nothing to tell me except that "when and if the bird does die we can send it to a lab in iowa city and then tell you what it died from " of course for 150.00 dollars I told them nevermind by that time there will be no point the rest will be dead as well and you can have specimens for your next class on poultry diseases. anyway that is what I decided to do and what fit "most" of the symptoms so I got sulmet and am using that if that dont help either in 6 days or ive lost all my birds and have to start over. but I decided to turn here as this site and everyone here is a plethora of information and maybe someone would be able to help and offer better advice than my "hope this works" attitude

 

[Duramaxgirl]

I'm new to chickens but I read that combs turning purple/black on the tips and the symptoms that you describe could be salmonella.
Just an idea...

 

[firefighting4u]

well I went out this morning and found my yokohama roo dead and a few of the yoko hens look like they are keeping themselves apart from the others now that my roo died I know whatever it is it is in my main pen now my layers on the otherside look fine and lots of energy the brown one looks and acts fine just the comb looks a bit funny in the pic as shown. anymore ideas it looks like whatever this is it is fast like pretty much within 24 hours or within 24 hours of noticing it in the roos so far 3 roosters and 1 hen. there is no vet here that knows anything about chickens!

 

[zoo2u]

I would seriously research a vet, even if you have to drive to necrospy the ones that died and figure out what is going on, before you lose more. White poop can sometimes be a bacterial infection but i would try a vet.

 

[zoo2u]

Try this link
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/livestock/veterinarymedicine/

Call the head of Poultry Darrell Trampell hopefully he can help you!

 

[rungirl]

Have you tried worming them? That poop looks foamy to me. I'd get some Ivomec as a precaution.

 

[firefighting4u]

no I havent wormed them yet because I wasnt to sure how much they could take as they are getting sulmet right now with electrolytes in the water can I worm them as well right now or should I wait till the 6 days of sulmet are done then worm

 

[ND]

How long have they been on the sulmet?
I know the sulmet I have states that if no improvement is seen in 2-3 days, to discontinue use/seek other diagnosis. If they have something that is sensitive to the sulmet, you should see some improvement by the second full day... very, very good improvement by the third day if they were very sickly. If they continue to get worse, or show no improvement, I would say that whatever it is, isn't sensitive to the sulmet. That is... IF the very sick ones are actually drinking the treated water. Treating the water will do no good if they're off feed/water. You'd have to get enough of the solution in them orally for it to work.

I don't even know if it's recommended to mix electrolytes AND meds in the same water... maybe someone else knows. I usually wait until medicated water is discontinued.

It's possible they're suffering from a heavy worm load... but again, I'd not hit them with EVERYTHING at once.
To be honest, if I were you...with several separated pens and no idea about what's killing them...and couldn't get a diagnosis from a vet/necropsy... I might treat two pens differently if I was torn on what the possible problem could be. I'd treat one with sulmet or tylan (or the med I felt was appropriate for the possible infection, if present) and if I thought worms were a possibility, I'd treat another pen that had sickly birds with dewormer. I think it'd only take a up to 3 days to know if either was working or not.
At this point, it doesn't sound like you have a lot to lose...

 

[firefighting4u]

thank you ND for the response they have been on sulmet for about 24 hours now so it is still pretty young to tell About inprovements but I did get some wazine I think it is called just to have on hand. I appreciate all the answers and all. I dont think I am able to treat some other ones seperate as I have started them all on sulmet yesterday. Now I think I am seeing a little bit more activity from the white roo and brown roo but that could be me convincing myself they are getting better and actually not. But I will continue to monitor them.

Does anyone know if I can worm them while they are on sulmet?

Also I will continue to post as my plan of attack continues and if If things do not improve I will take a dead one into iowa city to find out for sure what they have, If nothing I do helps. I may have found a vet that will do a fecal sample and look at it under scope to see if maybe has worms would he/she be able to tell cocci as well? and even if they are not a chicken vet they should be able to tell me something right?

Man I should have just stuck with my German Shepherds and Tennessee Walkers lol j/k anyway sorry for all the misspellings and typos I try to type but fingers are not as fast a brain lol and I have to still look at the keyboard and by the time I look up to check spelling I pretty much just hit enter.

oh and I was thinking more on What ND said and was wondering about maybe ammonia poisoning. Where they Are now is well vented and all and they are outside alot but when I first got them I had to put the First ones I got into my barn which was a 12 x12 horse stall now 3 sides of the stall are solid wood and the front is solid wook all the way up 3 feet then it is all galv bars and 3x3 wire not say ammonia is a heavy gass wouldnt it get trapped in the stall maybe. I mean there are cracks where the wood meats and all that and I dont think it explains the white runny poo and i kinda streatching out and htinking outside the box But when I reread all the posts I saw ND's About poor circulation and started thinking about some of the EMS calls I have been on so I thought I would run it buy you all and see what you thought or I may be just trying to make the wrong puzzle pieces fit? they were in there untill 6 days ago when I got my chicken coop built enough to transferr them to it.

Also as you probably know I am the king of run on sentences! lol

 

[theFox]

Have you checked your birds for mites or lice?

A heavy mite load can result in death by loss of blood.