Help needed quickly! 2nd hen dead! ***UPDATED***

[texaschickmom]

I just lost my 2nd hen to something, I'm not sure what. Here are the symptoms,
1. very pale comb, wattles
2. lethargic
3. no interest in food/water
4. can't walk or stand up
5. death

In that order. This last one went down really quickly. The heat here is probably not helping either. But I've got something going through my flock and I'm afraid I'm going to lose the whole lot of them.
I've tried Duramycin in the water cause that's all I have. I've been doing many searches on this site but I'm overwhelmed right now and could use some help.
Please help if this sounds familiar to anyone!
Martha

 

[Darklingstorm]

Have you checked for mites or lice?
I've heard that they can drain a chicken pretty bad, leaving them weak and pale and can cause them to die.

Best time to check for mites will be at night when they go to roost.

 

[FlyHigher]

I just lost my 2nd hen to something, I'm not sure what. Here are the symptoms,
1. very pale comb, wattles
2. lethargic
3. no interest in food/water
4. can't walk or stand up
5. death

In that order. This last one went down really quickly. The heat here is probably not helping either. But I've got something going through my flock and I'm afraid I'm going to lose the whole lot of them.
I've tried Duramycin in the water cause that's all I have. I've been doing many searches on this site but I'm overwhelmed right now and could use some help.
Please help if this sounds familiar to anyone!
Martha

Sorry for your loss.
Is there any respiratory symptoms?
And discharge from nostrils?
How does the stool look like?

 

[texaschickmom]

I've checked for mites/lice recently and see no evidence. The only respiratory symptom I've seen is in the first one that died and it was very rattly when she breathed. This last one didn't last but a couple of days. I think the extreme heat is not helping either. No discharge from nostrils. Hard to say about stool. There are 13 hens so there are varying colors/consistency of poop through the coop.
I'm getting ready to call my regional office of the Texas Animal Health Commission. Hopefully I can get a necropsy done on this last hen.
I'll keep you posted. Thanks for any suggestions.
I don't think this is going to be good for my flock at all.

 

[FlyHigher]

I've checked for mites/lice recently and see no evidence. The only respiratory symptom I've seen is in the first one that died and it was very rattly when she breathed. This last one didn't last but a couple of days. I think the extreme heat is not helping either. No discharge from nostrils. Hard to say about stool. There are 13 hens so there are varying colors/consistency of poop through the coop.
I'm getting ready to call my regional office of the Texas Animal Health Commission. Hopefully I can get a necropsy done on this last hen.
I'll keep you posted. Thanks for any suggestions.
I don't think this is going to be good for my flock at all.

Sorry for your loss. Are there any neurological symptoms or weird behavior before they died?

 

[texaschickmom]

No, no weird behavior at all.
Just got off the phone with the vet at the state animal health office and he is going to have one of the state labs call me to hopefully get a necropsy done on this hen that died this morning. I'm just waiting on a call back. This man said the symptoms sound like anemia--pale comb, lethargic, won't stand up. I don't know. I'm feeling very sad and overwhelmed about the whole thing right now. Hopefully I can get some answers soon.
Thanks.

 

[texaschickmom]

Update on my dead hen: I drove down to Center, TX to one of our state labs and had a necropsy done on her. When I had described the symptoms to the state vet he said it sounded like Avian Leukosis. Now he says he's 70% sure that's what she died from, except he found no actual tumors. ALL of her organs were very pale, too--liver, kidney, heart, even her bone marrow. Her respiratory and digestive tracts were clean. He did a couple of swabs to test for any bacterial infections, but he's not expecting anything to come of that.
He said that this is passed down from breeding stock to the chicks. Some chickens get sick and die and others don't for whatever reason. Those that aren't affected are carriers and can pass it to their chicks so they should never be used as breeders. Of course, there's no treatment since it's viral.
So...I have one delaware hen and 1 rooster left from this group that is still looking OK. We'll see what happens...

 

[20736]

Sounds like you are doing everything humanly possible for your animals, a worthy trait to say the least.
I am sorry about your loss, but be comforted by your efforts to be such a good provider.
The worst part with poultry is when something like this happens, but the goods far outweigh the bad.
So, hang in there, keep doing the best you can.