HELP! Our flock is dying!!

[Caleb1534]

Thank y'all for your quick responses and questions!

 

[Kiki]

This is mostly all that we feed them. They get scraps from the kitchen almost daily.
But for the most part this is what we feed them.

Fatty liver kills without any symptoms and it is caused by what they eat.
Feeding scraps daily can be a big problem.
I'd stop and start only feeding them a balance diet of ONLY the all flock or layer type pellets.

 

[Caleb1534]

@Caleb1534 I look through som eof your older posts.
Looks like you have had some type of respiratory disease in your flock before.
I wonder if you possibly have Marek's disease. Send your next death to these people and you will get an answer as to what is is killing your birds unless it is the possums killing them.

https://www.clemson.edu/public/lph/index.html

We have had opossums around for a while and other than the one that was eaten there were no signs of violence.

Thank you.

 

[KRack]

I didn't notice any weight change because I've been very busy.

Possibly their food is moldy? But I don't think so because it seems from what I can tell that one gets sick, dies, then another takes the baton (as it were) and continues the cycle.
Also, we don't have a feeder or anything like that. We feed them a small amount twice a day so I think that we would notice if their food was moldy.

I don't know what ate the last one but, I did see two opossums last night so maybe they did?
Although the bones were pretty picked clean so maybe it was dead long enough for bugs to have cleaned it off?

I may try to send a few pictures of their set up.

Again you have to remember that I've been pretty busy recently so I might not notice as much as I would if I was not.

Thank y'all.

I just didn’t know if you’d notice weight loss when picking them up to burry them (other than the one picked clean, obviously).

I had a bag of food get moldy while in our outdoor storage unit. Humidity or something must have affected the bottom of the bag. It might be worth rummaging through and checking for clumps just in case.

 

[KRack]

Also, I had this one chicken with a respiratory illness (MG) and her only symptom was bubbles in her eye. The one eye eventually got swollen, but sometimes respiratory things in birds dont always seem obviously respiratory. Check their eyes when you check on them, and see if their crops empty from tonight to tomorrow morning.

 

[RockyRidgeFarms]

https://poultrydvm.com/condition/blackhead-disease

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

yellow stools can be a sign of blackhead

The lethargy, lack of appetite and sudden death are all in line with Blackhead.

Treatment is Acidified Copper Sulfate in their water for 3 days. Follow up immediately with probiotics. This is one of those instances where the treatment can kill already weakened birds. Probiotics are not an option. They are a required part of the treatment. I learned the hard way.

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

It's a disease Turkeys can get. Pretty sure it doesn't affect chickens except in really rare cases

That's a fowl misconception. It has a 100% mortality rate for turkeys. Chickens can survive with a much higher survival rate. Although anything would be higher with a 100% mortality rate. It's the reason why it is not recommended to keep turkeys and chickens together.

I'm in Texas near Houston. Blackhead in backyard flocks is as rampant as coccidiosis.

I have a preventative schedule that includes Blackhead.

Oh, and chickens rarely get a blackened comb from it, so histomoniasis is more commonly used for chickens.