Help! Sudden death!

Sydni Crawford

In the Brooder
Feb 9, 2020
30
17
26
@azygous
Hi! We came home yesterday to 3 dead chickens. All about 24 weeks old.
All seemed fine before work at morning feed, chipper and prancing around. No one was lethargic, everyone looked perfect.
I lost a barred rock, silver laced Wyandotte, and an olive egger.
Now I have several more that look poor.
I have 2 more barred rocks that are hovering the water and excessively drinking to the point of spitting up water. Their crops are HUGE and water filled. Not interested in eating and relatively lethargic. At first we assuming that it was the heat. I am in Louisiana and it is like HELL FIRE here right now.
We have been icing their water, extra shade, and adding fans to the coop and run.
The poorly ones have diarrhea and lowered chests when they walk.
What can I do for my girls?
 
Can you add some electrolytes to the water? Also have some plain water for any who don’t like the taste of the electrolytes. Shade and shaded water is very important. I also like to put out flat pig pans of water half full for them to stand in to cool their feet. Fans pulling air through the coop, and make more windows in the coop if necessary. Look around as well for any mold in your feed or scratch grains. Sorry for your loss.
 
First, I'm sympathetic over your loss, especially sudden death of multiple chickens. It's very stressful and can throw you for a loop.

Hot weather will cause stress and upset electrolytes, and this can lead to shock. Shock can start shutting down body functions and start organ failure. Crops won't function and empty. So the first thing I would automatically treat for is shock and dehydration.

I give cold Garoraid. Chickens like the taste and it will work pretty quickly. Just pour it out in a drinking bowl and they'll do the rest. Or make your own with sugar water with a pinch of salt and baking soda.

However, there my be an exposure to a toxic substance at work. As @Eggcessive mentioned, mold is one toxin that can cripple and kill. Others include insecticides and other petroleum distillates such as motor oil and hydraulic fluid. Even a tiny bit coating some gravel can kill or cripple. Look for engine coolant, too. That can be a source of poisoning if the family mechanic has just flushed a cooling system out onto the ground where chickens roam.

Sending a dead chicken to a lab for a necropsy will give you some valuable answers. Not knowing what's sickening and killing your chickens is worse than knowing.
 
Unfortunately we lost 2 more chickens this morning. We brought them in the house yesterday mid day, to get them out of the heat and treated with electrolytes. We started to think that they both had sour crops, by the smell of their breath, and began treating with miconazole.
They actually looked better this morning around 6:30 when I got up the check on everyone. By 8:30, I had one start violently convulsing and die and within 20 minutes the other did the same thing. Both Barred Rocks.

I’ve learned that Chickens do not exit gracefully.
my pregnant/emotional self didn’t handle it well.
I have 1 more still in the house that looks better, standing up and walking around. She seems a little “drunk” but honestly she has been “off” since the day we got her. She never developed like everyone else. Always been our special baby.
 

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