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Help Please! Chicken dying every few weeks! Don't know what is wrong!

Discussion in 'Emergencies / Diseases / Injuries and Cures' started by CajunPeeps, Jan 31, 2015.

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  1. Jan 31, 2015 Post #1 of 5
    CajunPeeps

    CajunPeeps Chirping

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    Aug 12, 2014
    White Castle, LA
    I have been loosing a chicken every 1-2 weeks. I am not sure what it could be. The first one I lost back in November was a 16 wk old CCL pullet. No symptoms. The second was another CCL roo, same pen about a month later. No symptoms. The next one was a black copper maran, 16 wks, 2 weeks later. No symptoms. The next one was a 24 wk old columbian wyandotte roo from a different pen. He was lethargic the day before. I gave him probiotics and electrolytes when I found him. He also had runny green poo, would not eat or drink. He died the next day. A week after he died, another columbian wyandotte pullet, 24 weeks old from same pen starting acting strange. All she does is sits in one spot and shakes like she is shivering. Her comb is also pale but still red. I took her out the pen and put her by herself. I gave her oxytetraline, antibiotic, may have spelled wrong. Anyway, she is still alive but still shaking, she only moves to eat and drink. No runny green poo. Looks normal. Today, a 20 week old Americana, from a different pen was dead in the coop. I did notice last week she was moving slower than usual but she was eating, drinking, and roosting with the rest. I am at a loss. I have no idea what is going on. I have inspected all dead birds along with the one still sick. No bugs, no discharge from eyes or nose, no bloody poo, not noticing any worms in poo from coops. This last one must have just died, she was still warm. She was kinda thin in my opinion, and I did notice a bluish green pocket of something on her right side under her skin. Please help, I rally don't know how many more losses I can take.
     
  2. Feb 1, 2015 Post #2 of 5
    CajunPeeps

    CajunPeeps Chirping

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    Aug 12, 2014
    White Castle, LA
    No ideas, BYC is so great yet, I never get any responses when I have questions!
     
  3. Feb 1, 2015 Post #3 of 5
    rebrascora

    rebrascora Crowing

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    Feb 14, 2014
    Consett Co.Durham. UK
    Hi

    Really sorry to hear about your losses. That must be heart breaking and very worrying. I am no expert but when I have a chicken die unexpectedly I now do a post mortem examination to try to establish the cause. It is particularly important when you have a series of unexplained deaths like you have, to find out what the problem is. The more post mortems I do, the more I understand about how things should look inside a chicken and therefore what might be wrong. Obviously I am not able to do bacterial or viral tests but so far most of the causes of death of my chickens have been pretty obvious.
    In your case it may well be bacterial/viral or even poisoning though and therefore you might be well advised send the carcass away for a necropsy. Hopefully someone in your area will come along soon and advise you how to go about that and where to send it. I'm really sorry I can't be of more help, but I'm in the UK and I'm not even sure we have that facility here, but I've definitely read of people in the states sending their chickens off for a necropsy. Perhaps you could do a search on that and see if there are any that are linked to your state..... or go on your state thread and ask if anyone there has had it done.

    Best of luck with finding the problem and hopefully preventing any more deaths.

    Regards

    Barbara
     
  4. Feb 1, 2015 Post #4 of 5
    mon petit ferme

    mon petit ferme Hatching

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    Feb 1, 2015
    Cajun Peeps,
    I just joined this site. I, too, have had unexplained deaths.....about 1 every 3 or 4 months. No visible sign of trauma but a wasting away, not eating, green poop.
    Someone recently told me about a poultry lab in a nearby town but I have not had any luck finding them online. I agree with the above post. The most helpful thing would be a post mortum.

    One thing I did find out was that chickens are allergic to grapes/raisins. We had been buying bird treats that included nuts, seeds and fruit (raisins) and feeding them to our flock. I'm not sure if this has caused any of our problems or not.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2015
  5. Feb 1, 2015 Post #5 of 5
    ChristieB

    ChristieB Songster

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    Dec 13, 2014
    Queensland
    With that many deaths I would be taking the dead ones for a necropsy. Sounds like some kind of poisoning but you can't fix it if you don't know what's caused it, it will probably cost but take the most recent dead ones (assuming they aren't already buried) and the sick one to a vet ASAP and get testing done.
     

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