Help. Sick chickens...

[PuppyBantamCochin]

Help!

Around probably six or seven weeks ago, 2 of my (4) roosters started limping (they live in a chicken tractor). At first, I thought it was just because those two had been fighting, so nothing really bad to worry about. But they kept limping, and I couldn't see anything wrong with their feet. Later on, it seemed to get worse. The one of them started acting like it couldn't keep balanced. He'd kind of walk/stumble, fall over, etc. Soon, I found him just sitting in the pen, acting really depressed, and I noticed his comb & wattles were shrunken and pale. He still ate and drank, but he had lost a lot of weight. I moved him to a cage in our goat shed, and he died a couple days later.

Afterwards, my other ''sick'' rooster, austrolorp (my favorite rooster), he started getting the same weird symptoms (imbalance, limping). I removed him a week later and he died too.

(both roos died in the past 3wks).
What's going on? My other two roosters aren't really limping or anything, but both of them have lost weight and their combs are shrunken.
They live in a chicken tractor, currently separate from our hens, are moved every other day, and for a while were getting a mixture of chicken feed and some goat feed that we didn't feed our goats (not sweet feed). The goat feed wasn't moldy, but was there something bad for them in it?
Also, I noticed that there was a rust build up in their 'galvanized' metal waterer. I got a new waterer for them, but if rust has anything to do with it, is it too late for the others?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Tangerine farmer]

I just lost a 5 month old hen to something like this. She had loss of leg control and weakness. Finally down and couldn't stand. It was quite sad, and nothing seemed to work... aspirin, antibiotic, more antibiotic, and even syringe feeding when she stopped eating.

I don't know if it was the result of mycoplasma infections that went into her spine, joint (no swelling seen and that is a clue for the Mycoplasma synoviae infection ...spelling incorrect, but you could search that. ) I did search on the computer a lot and found nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sorry I don't know what we all have. Some posts are asking the same question and no one knows the answer.

 

[ZooMummzy]

I had the same thing with my Blue Silkie last month. The limping showed up one day and over the course of a few days it spread to both legs. She died two weeks later. I tried everything and nothing worked. Odd part is, all my other chickens are just fine. I'm sorry for our losses. I probably should have taken her in to the state board to see if they could find out, but I just didn't think about it at the time.