Losing my flock at an alarming rate :(

[JDMcK03]

I was wondering if anyone with more experience could help assist me in figuring out what is going wrong!

Flock: 5 Buff Orphingtons, laying now, 24 Weeks. Solid Production so far, no issues.
3 Columbian Wyandotes
3 Black Austrolorps Both types 3-4 Months old


First we lost a wyandote, found her dead in the coop in the morning. Thought possibly scared to death by a predator. No apparent signs of injury or illness. Added ACV to water in case it was sour crop.

Then in the past 2-3 days we've found 2 Orphingtons, another Wyandotte, and an Austrolorpe being the following:

-Standing still in a single place. Not moving with the flock as usual.
-Puffy. Fluffed out.
-Signs of diarhea (NO BLOOD), poopy butts, watery poops. We've tried to keep them as clean as possible. Vents are not closed up though, only on feathers.
- Hunched down, butts facing up in the air, feathers spread.

We reacted by thinking cocci, went to Tractor Supply (closest store with medications) but they were out of Corid. Had to go to local farmers market who only had Salumate(spelling might be wrong, it's 1:35a I've been up all day, sorry). Cleased drinking dish, filled with medication. We've tried to quarantine chickens as we found them, til we realized it was most of the flock. Of the 4 sick chickens, one of the orphingtons and the austrolorpe, seemed to respond very well to the medication and are mobile and active again.

Well tonight the orphington wasn't doing well. Children and wife bathed it in warm water, checked for egg bound, brought no issues. Did find a whole grape tomato though (wierd). Vent was extremely pooy (if that's even a word), and extremely foul smelling. Her breathing was labored. Was very lathargic. After we put it away in our living room for the night, it siezed loudly and passed immediately much to the dismay of my entire family watching.

Finally got the kids to bed, went and checked in the coop to find the wyandotte on the ground, acting the same, and I fear she won't make it through the night with how quickly the other two were lost.



Does anyone have any ideas I'm not thinking of? Is cocci decimating my flock? Should I cleanse the entire coop? Could they have botulism from a bad bag of food? (Using a mix of layer and flock feed) Could scratch (which is given in morning as a wake up snack) be doing this? The entire summer they were all so happy! This is decimating my kids!

 

[Back2MyRoots]

I'm new to chickens, so I haven't the foggiest as to what could be wrong. Posting though to keep this at the top so more people will see and hopefully respond. I would be devistated! Sending prayers and good thoughts for you and your family; esp. your children! Wishing you luck!

 

[JDMcK03]

Thank you! It just seems as I sit here and google over and over the different symptoms, I can't find something where everything fits. It seems they have a little of everything! My wife and I are sitting here in bed, both typing away at our laptops.... sigh.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Wow i am so sorry.

I have some sneezing (2) but no where near what you are dealing with. have you added any new chickens? Tylan is a good antibiotic.. i am no expert but i can see, you need help fast... get the sick ones out.. fast. push antibiotic to the rest. hope the people with more experience will answer soon. good luck

 

[JDMcK03]

No, we have not added any new chickens.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

I actually have some experience with throwing antibiotics at a problem. In our case, a respiratory ailment. It only compounded the problem by turning their tummies all up-side-down and nearly killing them with diarrhea AND it did not solve the respiratory problem.

I agree with quarantining sick birds. And if the majority are sick, move the birds that aren't sick! That may be a better idea anyway.

I know you can make an electrolyte drink by mixing ACV, honey and a pinch of epsom salt into their water and that can't hurt at this point. It most definitely helped our birds. And I know feeding them some scrambled eggs for extra protein to build strength can't hurt either. Other than that, I am no help at all.

 

[JDMcK03]

Thank you for responding.

After our first little one had died, we had thought It was maybe sour crop. And our others seemed to be fine. I had not noticed until 3 days ago that another little one was standing by herself in our yard. Similar to how the first one was acting. Her crop felt fine, but thats when we noticed diarhhea and her feathers at her vent all coated in it. Thats when I looked at the rest and seen that most of them had the same poopy butts.

Today my daughter noticed one of our older BO's outside on the ground breathing heavy. They brought her inside, and started to give her water with electrolytes in it. I came home and checked on her. Gently checked her vent, pulled out a whole sm sized green tomato...and very smelley poo. We placed her into a warm tub for 30 mins.... I thought maybe egg bound, gave her some crushed tums, tried to get some sugar water in her. She just laying in the tub with the warm water and quiet. I checked her vent gently...went more up than low.... realized that the first check may have just been her poo part, first time I have checked a vent. I am a nurse, have done several human rear end checks So was able to find no eggs at all...felt nothing inside. We pulled her out, placed her in towels and on a heating pad set to low. Kept her covered, she seemed to be resting/sleeping. But I was not hopeful she was going to make it... Then she passed about an hour after all this.

I am hoping to get some help, and also still looking up symptoms/etc in the forums.

The girls right now have sulmet and water.... food and oyster shells available to them. We did bring back another baby into the house for the night.... She is puffed up, head low, rear end up... I am hoping she makes it thru the night. I had her in the house earlier, but she seemed to perk up after about 12 hrs, and some water/sulmet. So we had placed her outside this evening, but we brought her back in. Sigh... This chicken stuff sure is tricky.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

posting to keep you up towards the top... hows things going...
hope the situations improved.

 

[FlyHigher]

Seems like cocci.
If you can't find Corid, you can try Sulfaquinoxaline + Sulfadimidine instead.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your losses... Sulmet only treats two types of coccidiosis in chickens and two in turkeys, but chickens get many more that aren't listed on the back of the bottle. Smelly poop is a pretty good indicator that you're dealing with coccidiosis. The preferred way to treat coccidiosis is with Corid. However, if they aren't drinking enough, they won't get enough of any medicine that you put in the water and need to be given medications orally, with a syringe.