Losing a bird every other day...any help appreciated

[Tunastopper]

I had turkeys die without any symptoms. Only my oldest died. No young birds died. Mine all ate the same food. I changed the food. In 4 days all deaths stopped.

 

[gottsegnet]

I was reading about that, but no, they are on separate diets.

We lost a bird today, but this one was obviously attacked by something. It's toe is broken off and has blood on the side of its neck. Almost relieved to find it a victim of an attack.

We just bought new feed. If that's the problem, hopefully it'll clear up even if we never find out what it was.

 

[azygous]

I know the frantic need to figure this out. I lost two hens this summer, they died suddenly and mysteriously. It took me awhile, but I traced both deaths to exposure to pesticide.

Each death was separate and unique and freaky.

From the sound of it, your chickens may have died from their nervous systems shutting down, and pesticides do that. At first glance, you may feel nothing has changed, but you need to trace their feed and water back to any possible contamination by pesticides. Try to keep an open mind when you do it - it's easy to deny that you could possible have been careless. At least it was for me.

I sure hope you find the cause and you lose no more chickens.

 

[gottsegnet]

Thanks!

It wouldn't surprise me for the outside birds. We are in farm country and they are free ranged. And they like the edge of the soy bean fields.

I found a source of stagnant water that was pretty disgusting that some of the birds would have had access to. But not all birds have access. Those that were kept in the garage wouldn't have had access to the fields or the water.

The two groups that had deaths were both on separate feeds (one is a laying flock and one was being kept for show).

But the broilers in the garage haven't succumbed to anything. Even in the hight heat. They didn't get any special care other than a little ice in their water and none of them died. That's why I'm starting to think internal parasites may have at least something to do with it, even if it is just weakening them enough to make them susceptible to something else. The broilers have had a bit of everyone's feed since they ran out and we just made them a mixture of what was available (the feed store ran out and we had to wait for it to come in).

But they're also the only chickens that really never went outside. Just to have their pen cleaned, but the others had time in an outdoor pen.

 

[gottsegnet]

We're still having weasel problems, too. We lost a chick, but this one had obviously been attacked. It had a broken toe, blood on the side of its face and feathers pulled out.

I think I prefer weasels to unidentified who knows whats taking my flock!

Going to check on them again, but its been a few days since we've lost anyone mysteriously. Even the one I thought looked weak and was underweight seems to be doing better.

 

[gottsegnet]

Sorta crossing my fingers here, but all seems well. We have 15 birds left, it has been over a week since we lost anyone and they all look to be in good condition. I was concerned because they seemed to have stopped laying, but we just found a hidden nest with 11 eggs this morning. That accounts for most of the eggs I think we should have gotten over the past week.

We had one loss after treating them for parasites we never found direct evidence of, but the birds' color did improve after being dipped as opposed to merely being dusted.