abbadoodle
Hatching
- May 1, 2023
- 8
- 6
- 9
We've lost two hens (Constance and Louisa) a week apart from what seems to be the same ailment. I'm trying to figure out what the cause might be. I would appreciate any ideas or guidance here so I don't lose any more birds.
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
buff orpington hens, maybe lost a little weight in the last month or so, but we've had two heat waves and everyone is molting
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
both hens suddenly became lethargic, head tucked, closing eyes, squatting in middle of run, then they were both quickly removed from run; first one very quickly lost awareness and had a seizure (neck bending and erratic wing flapping), then died; second hen was aware a little longer and then also seized and died
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
for the first hen, I'm not sure; I went into the run and saw her squatting and at first thought she had just decided to lay in an odd spot because we have one that occasionally does; she didn't respond or more when I gave her a tap
the second hen was fine this morning and symptoms must have set in sometime this afternoon; she had a pale comb and wattles off and on for maybe four days and did get beat up on by the other girls, but she is lower in the pecking order and we had high heat at the time, so I assumed it was just the heat getting to her after an examination and not finding anything
both girls were laying mostly normal, if not on the slower side from the heat; they are both about a year and a half and have been slowing some on laying at the rate of the other older hens
symptoms of both hens: pale comb/wattles, swollen cloaca bursa at death, no egg in the chute ( I checked manually), mostly empty crop with only some fluids, sudden lethargy and floppiness, then seizure and rapid death
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
other than these two, two other hens have also had pale combs/wattles off and on; the one that still looks pale I put in the barn in isolation, the other sometimes looks pale on the regular and has normal coloring currently
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
no, doesn't seem injury-related
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
we have had two spurts of heat waves (90s) with a week of cooler weather in between both (mid-70s); both birds died about 2 days after the weather changed so I am wondering if the weather is involved; my other thought is bacterial based in their water containers (due for a good scrub) as it was really hot and could make bacteria grow faster. they also had not been getting ACV in their water as we were changing it multiple times a day to keep it cool and to keep from dehydrating them further
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
only regular feed, though they were only eating meat-bird feed for a few weeks (this was due to a mistake on my father's part--he was trying to help the pullets catch up to the big girls and didn't realize that the calcium levels were much different, though they had sunflower seeds a few times and a couple other fresh greens, so this helped to keep the laying as normal), but now they are back on the layer feed;
when it was really hot, they had free choice regular water that was cooled and changed often, and electrolyte water every other day to keep them from heat exhaustion
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
mostly normal with occasional runny poops from the heat fluctuations, though the second hen didn't experience this, only the first
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I was unable to do anything for them as the illness wasn't caught until they were both dying in my arms; the hen in the barn ahs been given access to nutri-drench in her water and some probiotics
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?
we don't have access to a vet, so anything I can do to keep anyone else from this would be great
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
Constance is buried in the sunflower garden with the other girls we lost in the winter; there is not much to show of Louisa except for the swollen vent
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Wood chips in the run and coop that are changed out regularly, regular wood coop with roost bars, though we are in the process of rotating the girls to the bigger coop, so they are a little crowded at night; with the heat, I trained them to lay in shaded nesting boxes in the run so they don't get overheated as the coop holds in a lot of heat in the day. the girls were thrilled to have another option and have since stopped nesting up top
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
buff orpington hens, maybe lost a little weight in the last month or so, but we've had two heat waves and everyone is molting
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
both hens suddenly became lethargic, head tucked, closing eyes, squatting in middle of run, then they were both quickly removed from run; first one very quickly lost awareness and had a seizure (neck bending and erratic wing flapping), then died; second hen was aware a little longer and then also seized and died
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
for the first hen, I'm not sure; I went into the run and saw her squatting and at first thought she had just decided to lay in an odd spot because we have one that occasionally does; she didn't respond or more when I gave her a tap
the second hen was fine this morning and symptoms must have set in sometime this afternoon; she had a pale comb and wattles off and on for maybe four days and did get beat up on by the other girls, but she is lower in the pecking order and we had high heat at the time, so I assumed it was just the heat getting to her after an examination and not finding anything
both girls were laying mostly normal, if not on the slower side from the heat; they are both about a year and a half and have been slowing some on laying at the rate of the other older hens
symptoms of both hens: pale comb/wattles, swollen cloaca bursa at death, no egg in the chute ( I checked manually), mostly empty crop with only some fluids, sudden lethargy and floppiness, then seizure and rapid death
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
other than these two, two other hens have also had pale combs/wattles off and on; the one that still looks pale I put in the barn in isolation, the other sometimes looks pale on the regular and has normal coloring currently
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
no, doesn't seem injury-related
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
we have had two spurts of heat waves (90s) with a week of cooler weather in between both (mid-70s); both birds died about 2 days after the weather changed so I am wondering if the weather is involved; my other thought is bacterial based in their water containers (due for a good scrub) as it was really hot and could make bacteria grow faster. they also had not been getting ACV in their water as we were changing it multiple times a day to keep it cool and to keep from dehydrating them further
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
only regular feed, though they were only eating meat-bird feed for a few weeks (this was due to a mistake on my father's part--he was trying to help the pullets catch up to the big girls and didn't realize that the calcium levels were much different, though they had sunflower seeds a few times and a couple other fresh greens, so this helped to keep the laying as normal), but now they are back on the layer feed;
when it was really hot, they had free choice regular water that was cooled and changed often, and electrolyte water every other day to keep them from heat exhaustion
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
mostly normal with occasional runny poops from the heat fluctuations, though the second hen didn't experience this, only the first
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I was unable to do anything for them as the illness wasn't caught until they were both dying in my arms; the hen in the barn ahs been given access to nutri-drench in her water and some probiotics
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?
we don't have access to a vet, so anything I can do to keep anyone else from this would be great
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
Constance is buried in the sunflower garden with the other girls we lost in the winter; there is not much to show of Louisa except for the swollen vent
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Wood chips in the run and coop that are changed out regularly, regular wood coop with roost bars, though we are in the process of rotating the girls to the bigger coop, so they are a little crowded at night; with the heat, I trained them to lay in shaded nesting boxes in the run so they don't get overheated as the coop holds in a lot of heat in the day. the girls were thrilled to have another option and have since stopped nesting up top
