Help My Hens Are Dying!!!

[tarillow]

Hi my name is shane and i'm new to raising chickens. I have around 29 chickens and over the past month or so my hens have been dying off. I go up to feed them and their fine but then the next time I go up there I find one dead on the floor just killed over. On it's back legs in the air. This morning I found my favorite hen a deleware hen laying on the floor not able to stand or walk I try and sit her up and she falls over. I've looked all over the interenet and everything sounds the same. I've lost 5-6 hens for no reason (cochins, araucana and an unknown breed and now to be my deleware). We live in norht carolina and it's pretty cold but they have access to a run and their coop 24/7. I just don't know what to do and need some advice I'm ready to try anything. Nothing seems to be bothering my roosters and I have 3 of them. And 14 chicks. Please help my chickens are my hobby but their also my babies.

Thanks,
Shane

 

[Overeasyplz]

more info? Any wounds?? What kind of feed are they getting? Any abnormal protrusions?

 

[miron28]

i had this problem a couple of times had several die could never find out what was going on. i put them in a coop buy themselves and put a light on them and they still died after that the ones that were acting weird i did the dead and haven't had a problem again could never figure it out hope someone know what is going on

 

[feathersnuggles]

How old are these chickens? Is their poop normal? Are they eating/drinking well? Are they skinny, or normal weight? Anything liquid draining out of their eyes or nasal passages?

There are a lot of questions that need answering. Check out the post at the top of this forum to get an idea of what info is necessary. It's sticky and called something like "Is this a disease? Please read this first!"

 

[M To The Maxx]

Do your chickens have any of these symptoms? You have to go through a couple pages.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=248013

 

[tarillow]

There's no wounds. I feed them cracked corn, oyster shells and crumble layer/breeder feed. There aren't any abnormal protrusions. All I know is whatever is going on. It's not affecting my rooster, ducks or chicks. I brought my del. hen in the house and put her in a cage with a heater on her with food and water. She's just sitting or she'll wobble over to her food to eat and she's making low cackling sounds. But I havn't seen her drink anything yet. It seems to be in her legs like she's off balance or something or mabye her nervous system?

(I have 29 chickens, 2 ducks, 2 rabbits, 8 dogs, 4 cats, 4 horses, 9 chinchillas, 6 reptiles, 1 hamsteer)

 

[tarillow]

The one's that are dying are 8 months to over a year old. All the poop looks normal no blood not runny nothing. I water and feed 'em twice a day to make sure they have food all the time. And when I go up there they eat and drink when I'm refilling. Their are normal weight and healthy looking. They only time I've had any liquid draining is when i found one of my cochins dying but not dead yet and I picked her up and she had liquid drain from her mouth. I found her outside the door coming into the coop from the run.

 

[Suechick]

Have they been vaccinated for Marek's? There are some paralysis issues with Marek's and it's very common.

 

[tarillow]

Quote:
I don't know since I've bought my flock from a feed store, gotten a couple free, bought some on craigslist, bought some at the fleamarket and got some from the neighbor. So it's hard telling wether they have or not. Sadly my luck probably not. I just hope I don't lose my whole flock. But if I do I'll start over and make sure I do even more to prevent this again.

 

[ShysCreations]

I know the expense is tough, but you about need to take one or two to a vet. THere are so many things that can effect them--poisoning, bacteria, virus. With this hard winter, some have lowered immune systems.