I opened a new bag of feed the evening before last. Yesterday morning, had 3 dead birds. The rest did not come running to me, like usual, when I cam to feed them. None would eat all day. Lost 2 more yesterday. This morning woke to 6 more dead. They have blood coming out of their butts. I think I got a bad bag of feed. They are 7 weeks old. We were going to butcher next weekend. Any thoughts?
i don't know if you can save those birds, but i would definitely call your feed store and see if there are others that have had the same experience. i know a lady that lives a town south of me in angleton who raises peacocks had that happen to her. she actually sent the feed to texas a&m and found that it had too much of some mineral in there which ended up killing the peacocks. i am soo sorry that this is happening just before you process them. and if the feedstore says there are others, i would demand someone to pay for those birds that died.
How many total birds do you have left? I would think that losing that many in a short amount of time usually rules out disease, unless perhaps you have 100 birds or so. The feed may not have been bad to begin with, but may have gone bad. Often there is a date on the bag somewhere, which is presumably when it was packaged. Look for that date. If it's more than a few weeks ago, I would be very suspcious of the feed. Also, you might try smelling the feed, and/or closely visually inspecting it. If there's a problem at the Nutrena plant, it's unlikely that they will admit to it, but I lived in Michgian during the whole PBB scare* in the 1970's, so perhaps I'm a little bit more paranoid than everyone else. * http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1774247
Quote:I agree, it's probably Cocci. My chicks got it and the bleeding butts is the last symptom before they die.
I lost 3 the first morning, then 6 by evening, 14 the following day, then 12- then we killed the rest. We had 51. There wasn't continually blood coming out of the butt, it happened like when they tipped over. They've never been outside! THey were perfectly healthy the night I first gave them this feed. It is the same feed I have been giving them all along. Just think this bag is bad! I don't believe it is cocci. My young and older layers are doing just fine, and they share the coup--divided by a wooden wall-- and they free range. I have contacted Nutrena and they want the remaining feed left in the bag. They are going to test it. Not sure if they'll actually fess up or not. I hope so. Otherwise I am so disheartened that I don't know if I'll ever do boilers again!