Limping Chicken

Hello, I am still kind of new here and trying to find my way so please bare with me. My father-in-law and I seem to be having terrible luck with our chickens. In our first batch we had a chicken or two that would start limping on one foot and eventually just lay there and do nothing. The died. A dog got the other two as the chickens escaped their pin. In our next batch we eventually had the same limping chicken problem and I figured my five year old son handled them incorrectly. They too eventually died, and a toy poodle got in the coop and killed all but one of those. So, we started fresh and have lost only one very suddenly over night. We are not sure what happened there. Now we have a small Reeses who was laying for a few weeks and then suddenly stopped. Now she too is doing the limping thing and is laying around. It is like we have something in our coop making the hens sick.

When my father-in-law set up the coop it was done on a slab of concrete, and he put a lot of straw down for the birds. We replace the straw regularly. The chicken are also out in the fenced yard most of the day. I had heard form a coworker that chicken may need a special dirt to keep them healthy. Does this sound like anything anyone has heard before? Any advice would be appreciated. I hate to see the chickens sick.

Thanks!

Rob

 

Thanks for your response. I would say a month or two. Our Resses is still hobbling around and can get from place to place, but it is difficukt for her.