How many actually have chickens make it through illnesses?

[Buddy2biddies]

Today I lost my second hen after losing one 6 weeks ago. I took the first one to the vet who really didn't know what was going on. He gave her Clavamox and Panacur. She stood up one day after but still couldn't eat. Was skin and bones and died in her sleep.

Then my second hen started staying in the coop. Picked her up and she had a golf ball sized lump under one wing. 3 days ago she was running around in the yard and now she is dead.

I fed both birds by syringe and had their crops full. Gave water throughout the day and fed to make sure they were nourished. They continued to lose weight. With the second hen I gave cephlaxin and metrodinazole. I simply couldn't afford another $200 to an avian vet who didn't know what was going on.

I have 4 hens left. One acted sick a couple weeks ago and I immediately upped her food by feeding with a syringe. She seemed better. But her comb is still pale - but the one who died today had a nice colored comb so what in the world does that mean.

i keep the coop clean, run clean. give fresh water and food daily and they are dying. Vet thought it could be Mareks but wasn't sure.

Two hens are nice and heavy and two are smaller. Two are laying and the other two that are smaller are not.

I'm stumped and frustrated by all the junk these hens can get and trying to figure out what is wrong. My neighbors have chickens and all are healthy and they run all over the place. But they get killed by the hawks and coyotes

I guess my question is what can I do to be prepared and be proactive if it happens again? I have wormed the girls with Safeguard and Amprollium. I give them kefir and oatmeal in the morning. They hate layer pellets so I give crumbles with oyster shell They have been dusted with Sevin and seem free of lice or mites. They have a sandbox to take dirt baths in.

So what else can I do? This breaks my heart to see them go down so fast and die.

And I read everyone talking about antibiotics that you need a rx for. And why do they end up needing all these meds? Kind of defeats the reason I wanted to raise chickens - to have eggs that weren't full of medicines.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I am so frustrated and so saddened to lose 2 of my sweet girls. Just breaks my heart

 

[jgoldy2]

I had a broken leg chicken that had a leg amputated and lived, I had a corn seed infected leg, got it removed and she too lived, I had a rye neck that died of a cyote, and a chicken with a random disease probable Maraks, and she died so 2 lived and 2 died

 

[sueandthe6]

My friend started with chickens a few years ago. I had always wanted chickens and this past spring someone was giving away a coop and birds so I jumped. We shared stories all summer. Maybe two months ago- maybe more- two barred rock pullets came into the shelter where I work. I had my hands full but she was looking to start a second run. She had bought some chicks and we added these two. No-we didn't do the 30 day quarantine... lack of knowledge or place to go with them bested us and within two weeks her older girls were looking ill-not eating, lethargic, sneezing. She started reading like a mad woman and we talked several times a day about what it might be, what it probably wasn't and what the heck to do. Horror stories up to and including culling them all. She syringed them for a day or two each at their worst, and we meded with some powder we mixed into water. We debated if the stress of treating outweighed the well being of the birds since they were already 3 years old. In the end- they all made it through- each with different degrees of sickness. Through it all I don't know what it was/is (may still be carriers) and the chicks in the run aside of the old girls where the barred rocks were actually housed- no one ever got sick. Don't know if it was the age of the other girls or what but with nothing but experiences from everyone here, and some determined stupidity we pulled it off. God was smiling on us that week- or on the chickens maybe...not wanting to punish them for our ignorance.