Help! Appear to be losing perfectly healthy chickens

[rowdygirl]

Our chicken flock is 3-6 years old. They have been very healthy. We feed organic feed. They have an enclosed fence outside and an enclosed indoor area as well.- Too many predators to let them roam. We started losing hens about 5-6 weeks ago. A perfectly healthy hen would just fall over dead. There have not been any clinical signs with the possibility of a couple of hens might of gotten in trouble laying an egg. One rooster appeared to possibly get into a fight with another rooster and is recovering, so in case a predator was getting into the chicken house at night, resorted to also closing the door at night as well. The last one to die, suddenly became lethargic and died within 24 hours. She is the only one that lingered and did not die immediately. We worm them and occasionally will throw in tetracycline in the feed, though really hate to do that. There egg production is also way down. We have lost 7 hens out of 24 in the last 5-6 weeks. Any ideas, these hens look really good and appear healthy.

 

[AngieUpNorth]

I lost a rose combed leghorn within an hour of finding her crouched by my back door. She had 2 convulsions and was gone. Her crop was empty and her vent looked fine. She had laid a normal egg that morning. My only thought is she had wet avian pox. She had small bumps on only the left side under her tongue. It is transmitted by mosquitos and they can sometimes die of secondary infection. Perhaps give them all a round of antibiotics and hope for the best. I saw my girl had no breast feathers as another girl also has only about 60% of her feathers. Her breast, under wings and her entire bottom end is featherless... not even any feather shafts remain, just smooth skin.

 

[rowdygirl]

Thanks for your help. I have given my girls and rooster some antibiotic and re-wormed them. I am going to also clean their inside pen and spray with a mild anti-bacterial and anti viral.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. If you have a regular vet who could examine a stool sample from your hens, you may be able to tell if they have a more rare type of worm, or clostridium perfringens that can cause enteritis. If you have breeds of chickens who are high production layers, they can be prone to cancer and egg yolk peritonitis. Looking for lice or mites, worming them with a wormer that gets most chicken worms, and picking each one up to feel the breastbone for weight loss would be what I would do. Sometimes you can notice a crop impaction or some other problem this way. Egg binding is another common cause of death.

 

[rowdygirl]

Thanks for the information. I have talked to the vet and if we lose another he is going to make arrangements to have the state vet lab test it. There appear to be a variety of reasons, one probably taken out by a predator, 3 egg binding possibly, etc. The fact we lost so many so quickly has my attention. However, we going to totally clean out their house and replace with wood shavings, just in case. Would a mild bleach water mix be something that would sanitize the chicken house in case there is something they are picking up? The vet did not think we have anything contagious.