I've decided that raising chickens = heartache.

[ChesapeakeBorn]

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The first 3 died back in Aug/Sept despite treatment with Sulmet for coccidiosis. It seemed to me to be fowl cholera that killed them though - profuse green diarrhea, poor things. The last 2 that died more recently did not have that symptom.

All of them were about 4-6 months old when they died.

Still wondering whether the messy vents are a clue....

 

[dawg53]

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Empty your wallet or purse.

 

[ChicknThief]

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Empty your wallet or purse.

 

[1muttsfan]

See if your vet will run a fecal check for you. If they have parasites, you have to use the right dewormer. And good luck.

 

[welasharon]

They shouldn't have messy vents. You need to work from that end.

 

[rcentner]

just like any animal they can get sick. Plus, the more you have the more likely you are to run into illness. It is tough and heartbreaking to lose them. I have lost quite a few over the last 2 years. Predators and illness. I wish I had some encouraging words for you. There are so many things you can do to keep them healthy, but it seems eventually you will lose some and it's not any easier when you know what it was and that you could have done nothing to fix it anyway.

 

[ChesapeakeBorn]

But I only had 4 or 5 to start with!

I brought a fecal sample to the vet this AM. They're sending it off to the lab for me and I'm anxious to hear the results.

I am wondering about treating them with oxine if the fecal sample doesn't indicate anything. Has anyone had experience with this?

 

[Tracydr]

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I'm with you. I also minimize vaccines, antibiotics and derwormers. I use DE in the sandbox and coop. I only dust for mites/lice if they have an infestation, otherwise I use organic methods only, in fact, I still try DE and give it time to work before jumping for chemicals.
Varied diet, never using antibiotics unless I'm darn sure I have a good reason( in 25 years I haven't used them yet) and clean food/water. Closed flock. That's all I do and it's worked. I've even "sinned" and kept other species like peafowl, ducks and gunieas most of those years and never lost one.

 

[Tracydr]

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I would get a necropsy. I wonder if the chickens came with something from that farm, MG or something.

 

[Tracydr]

One thing I've noticed with non-organic treatments is that once you give one treatment it becomes a never ending cycle. You wipe out the immune system and begin having to treat everything. I don't even use the medicated feed for my chicks for this reason, although I'm careful to raise them on as dry of ground as possible, even raising a roof over the pen or putting them in abarnstall when I lived in wet climates.
This is something I've noticed not only with chickens but with my garden and with puppies, calves, horses and even the people I treat. ( I'm a physician) I'm a huge proponent of organic methods, probiotics (kefir, kombucha, ACV and plain old healthy manure!) and making sure the good bugs are able to balance out the bad bugs. For example, if you have a bout of aphids in the garden and kill them with chemicals, you will poison the good bugs and be stuck using poisons the rest of the season to kill not only aphids but other pests.
I've seen how amazingly complex the organic cycle can become. This summer, our neighbor, who sprays all the time, for everything, came over to our house complaining of a tick infestation. I noted that I'd had a couple of ticks on the dogs but nothing bad. He said he'd pick off almost a hundred on his one dog, even after having his yard professionally sprayed weekly for a month. My theory is that he's been spraying so long that he has no natural predators such as birds and praying mantis visiting his garden. I had huge amounts of mantis this summer and desert cardinals everywhere.
I hope you give things another try.
Organic cycles are simply so complex that it's nearly impossible to track the cause and effect. However, I would say in this case, starting fresh, with a different source of birds, new dirt, and a new philosophy would be a good place to start.
I give plain old, non-medicated chick starter, along with ACV and some kefir. I start on some sprouts and greens, adding some tiny grit right away. My chicks are healthy and strong.
For what it's worth, I don't vaccinate for much, either, only Marek's, because it's becoming so virulent. Anytime you vaccinate, you put a severe stress on the animal's immune system while it's responding to the vaccine. By vaccinating for multiple diseases all at one time, you are allowing other opportunistic diseases to take their toll, just while the stress of shipping, hatching and being a tiny baby chick are also happening. I think it's simply too much. I would save vaccines for times when you have a known outbreak or known problem disease in the area, such as a fowl pox outbreak.