HELP. SUDDEN DEATH WITH MEAT BIRDS.

[quinntaylor1995]

Hi all,
I had six Cornish crosses that were all doing well and gaining weight steadily. Last night, I checked on the birds and all was well. This morning, I went in the barn to find that two of them were dead with their intestines coming out of their vent. It was obviously not from a predator. I have four now, and one is bloody around the vent. They are living with egg bird cross chicks, and none of the eggers are showing signs of this. They are in their fourth week of growth and I really hate seeing them die like this... I planned for their lives to be happy and healthy and for there only to be one bad day. I read about vent prolapse... could this be the issue? Please help. Even though they are "just meat", I care about all of my animals no matter what their end is.

 

[Island Roo]

How old are they? Are they under a heat lamp?

Prolapse normally happens to mature egg layers.

Bloody stools could be coccidiosis.

 

[quinntaylor1995]

They are four weeks, and no longer need a heat lamp as where I am it would be too hot this time of year. There has been no bloody stool.

 

[pinkwindsong]

I had somethign very much the same happen to me last year but I had 20, when they were old an dbig enough to leave a brooder style cage with light to move into a large dirt floored coop wiht no light within days they started dyng off with no reall symptoms. I had 2 out of 20 live.. and then I just didnt have the heart to kill them so I let them live out their lives with everyone elese. My one hen lived nearly a year and was even laying egs. of course she weighed over 22 lbs finaly she got just too heavery and didnt make it .. the only thing I can figure on mine is I took the light to early and put them on dirt too early, and somehow stressed them into sickness. and death? there was no sickness or symptoms just the dead every morning in the coop... ????

good luck I hope you have better luck than i did

Pink

 

[Island Roo]

Oh - you did say 4 weeks.

It sounds like prolapse - I didn't know this could happen to a 4 week old. Very unusual that it would happen to more than 1.

Anything else that you noticed? Mites maybe?

 

[quinntaylor1995]

No mites, the only thing I can think of is that we keep ducks as well? They are fairly messy but we're very good about cleaning. The Ducks were in the pen they are in before them. They are not housed together now.