Lethargic chook, no sign of injury/sickness, but dead after 3 days :((

[Ali Adnan]

I live in rural Turkey and usually have 15-25 chooks wandering our land (citrus farm) and beyond where it is long grass, more fruit trees etc...

They all roost in trees near our dog and are fed barley in the morning, but other than that, they are left to nature. This week, one chook died, and now another seems to be following. It was quite lethargic for 2-3 days, sat down most of the time, kept away from the others and died peacefully. There was no sign of injury, mites, or other diseases; and it was almost 2 years old.

Any ideas?

 

[spish]

has pestacide or chemical been recently sprayed on the fruit trees and maybe they've ingested some?
im guessing if they are 'wild roaming' you dont know if the chicken was laying or not? could have been egg bound....or could have ate something poisonous. what is theei water source like? do you put out fresh water or do they drink from a well/stream/river/puddles?

what is the weather like out there at the moment?

 

[Ali Adnan]

Hmm, lots of possibles there I guess.

The main orchard has not been sprayed since February, and then just with copper sulphate (Bordo Bulamaci). I did spray by hand pump a few small trees for aphids last week, so that's a possible. I think she was laying, but with chooks all around, it's hard to know which one, as we get a bucketful every couple of days. For water, they have a few tubs around the place which I fill by hose, but yes, they are free range, wandering up to 500m away, so who knows what they've been in contact with. Weather is normal, now 30-35 hot n dry, but the season recently just changed from a more temperate 25 with partial sun. The hot stuff, 40+ does not arrive for another month

I did however notice a load of runny/watery excrement from one chicken this morning, so I wonder if a stomach bug is doing the rounds.