Lost ANOTHER one....and it was my favorite lap chicken.:(

[baltimoreharps]

OK, two hens in 10 days. One young and healthy, the last one old and spoiled and perfectly healthy until last night.
The young hen had a bloody drainage from her vent and heavy mucus from both nostrils before death. She didn't want to move even her head before death and was very listless during the day. She also had a LOT of congestion. When she breathed, she sounded like a coffee maker boiling. I checked her for being egg bound, gave her a warm bath, and gave her poly vi sol without iron.
She died within 12 hours.

I washed the coop with a 1 /2 TBSP bleach to 1 quart water ratio and changed bedding.

10 days ater the first, we lost our lap chicken, Bessie today.

She started going downhill last night, but I thought that she was just going to bed earlier than the rest like she always does since she is older.

This am, she just wanted to roost. Later in the am, I brought her out to get some treats like I always do during coop cleaning time where she gets her outside time since most of the hens pick on her due to her age, only she wasn't going on her usual walk out of the tractor.
After watering the garden, she was still in the same place and so, I thought, "oh no."
I brought her inside to rest and saw that her mouth was more mucus filled than normal. Her vent was ok, but she had poop all over the feathers.
She was acting normally, just lethargic morso than usual, no labored breathing or mucus from the nose.
The only thing that was abnormal was her energy level and a lot of mites that I dusted her and the rest of the girls in the flock today and the coop also.
She ate some of her favorite food, and drank water with vitamins most of the day, then about 5 pm, got really lathargic and didn't want anything.
She just went to sleep and....

I cannot figure out the cause from one to the other and I'm driving myself crazy figuring out if this could be CRD, or something else.. They are a closed flock that we got about a month and a half ago. They are on 16% layer pellets, oyster shells, and treats from the list along with a new spot to free range in the yard daily which is NOT treated with chemicals at all.

Dh is aso upset about this, so much so that he's not in here with the rest of the family.

We're both feeling like big failures at raising chickens, all we seem to do is kill them and it HURTS.

 

[Homesteading_Bound]

I'm sorry

I don't know..However I'm sure some does....

 

[Brindlebtch]

Could it be pneumonia? Maybe the best thing would be to put the flock on an antibiotic. You might have a vet take a sample of the mucus and send it off for pathology to see if they can isolate a bacteria.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

sorry I thought that my suggestion would help
a person is not a failure if they just try to help the birds live
and some may die but that is not in our control
you don't feel they have a congestion so guess that was not right
as for advising any one to get avet and get medication
I never do that with out first thinking what it might be
That was a vet friend of mine that gave me the information on MG
sorry it offended you all

 

[chicknmania]

To me it doesn't sound like the two cases are related. There is a ton of things that can go wrong with chicken health. I think I would wait before I used antibiotic for the whole flock...not good for them to get too used to it. If you have another one get sick, isolate and treat that one. If it dies, then if I were you I would get a necropsy done asap. Then you will know what it is and how to treat. Doesn't sound quite like CRD to me, either.

 

[Cetawin]

Quote:
DH is Dear Husband

I take it from your certainty that you are an Avian Vet?

If not, the better advise would be to find out what it was and then sort out the treatment. Too many times antibiotics are given without need or wrong drug for the problem.


To Original Poster...I am sorry you lost your birds but do not consider yourselves failures. Things happen and we learn from them and move on. So, it sounds like there was certainly respiratory distress and bloody poo sounds bacterial or viral. so, I would recommend the following...

Get a couple samples of fresh poo. Contact a vet and ask if they can do a fecal float on chicken poo...take the poo to them and start there. My vet charged me $10 for a fecal float. That will find internal parasites or eliminate them from the equation.

Secondly, I would get some electrolytes and vitamin powder to have on hand. Check for any signs of loose poo. If you see any, get those electrolyes in their water to keep them from dehydrating.

Third, check for anything around or in the coop that they could have gotten ahold of to make them sick..spiders, mice etc etc.

Have they been wormed?

Have you gotten rid of all the mites?

Is the coop damp or drafty?

And if another bird gets sick, contact your vet or a local vet and get the information for state lab. If the hen dies, send the body to that lab pronto or take it to the vet to have it sent. The lab will examine the body, tissue and blood...they will let you know what caused the bird's death.

But above all else...do not give up on them because they rely on you...in exchange they give you eggs and your family pleasure. That is worth the effort isn't it?

The key is finding out what the problem is and then fixing it.

 

[baltimoreharps]

Quote:
Dh is dear husband...and I don't have fancies, just plain old common garden varieties.(Did you read my sig??)
Closed flock does not mean pure flock and I do not have the access to an avian vet that treats chickens. Very rural area and any avian vet with in an hour drive doesn't "Do" chickens, just parrots, and ornamental birds.
Thanks for the advice, but it doesn't really help in this situation.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

I am sorry if the info didn't help you
the chickens were it sounded like a very heavy mucus and bleeding from the vent
so must be something else
I will delet my opinion

 

[baltimoreharps]

Quote:
DH is Dear Husband

I take it from your certainty that you are an Avian Vet?

If not, the better advise would be to find out what it was and then sort out the treatment. Too many times antibiotics are given without need or wrong drug for the problem.


To Original Poster...I am sorry you lost your birds but do not consider yourselves failures. Things happen and we learn from them and move on. So, it sounds like there was certainly respiratory distress and bloody poo sounds bacterial or viral. so, I would recommend the following...

Get a couple samples of fresh poo. Contact a vet and ask if they can do a fecal float on chicken poo...take the poo to them and start there. My vet charged me $10 for a fecal float. That will find internal parasites or eliminate them from the equation.

Secondly, I would get some electrolytes and vitamin powder to have on hand. Check for any signs of loose poo. If you see any, get those electrolyes in their water to keep them from dehydrating.

Third, check for anything around or in the coop that they could have gotten ahold of to make them sick..spiders, mice etc etc.

Have they been wormed?

Have you gotten rid of all the mites?

Is the coop damp or drafty?

And if another bird gets sick, contact your vet or a local vet and get the information for state lab. If the hen dies, send the body to that lab pronto or take it to the vet to have it sent. The lab will examine the body, tissue and blood...they will let you know what caused the bird's death.

But above all else...do not give up on them because they rely on you...in exchange they give you eggs and your family pleasure. That is worth the effort isn't it?

The key is finding out what the problem is and then fixing it.

Thank you.

The first hen that died was having an issue with a bloody, foamy discharge from the vent and a ot of nasal discharge along with sounding like a coffee pot perculating each breath at the end for several hours. There is a thrad on here about bloddy drainage from the vent, I'm too tired and too sad to look it up.

Bessie was old. We knew that when we bought the flock last month. She coughed, sneezed, and just took her time on everything until today.
Bessie just got slower and slower and slower, still taking time out to enjoy a nibble of bread or a treat until today. And then she went downhill fast. She wasn't rasping, gurgling, anything. She just coughed a couple of times during the day and that was it. She just went to sleep.

I've dusted all hens plus the tractor for mites and will re-dust the difficult ones to catch tomorrow just to be sure. I'll re-treat in 10 days.

Alll mites are gone that I'm aware of now.

No mice that I know of, it'd take a talented anything to get into the tractor the way that it's built while they are asleep, and it isn't drafty, the sleeping area is snug, tight and dry without being suffocating. They have covered ventiation areas that keep the ammonia level out of there and it NEVER leaks.

They are in a chicken tractor and are moved around from place to place daily with a free range day on Sunday on a non treated lawn.

They have not been wormed that I'm aware of. Having a new flock that had no new hens introduced, it didn't seem to matter. After having already intoducing an antibiotic to my flock 11 days ago based off of the local feed store, I'm not willing to worm, etc right now due to the last scare with the anti biotic already introduced that wasn't the correct one due to the local feed store trying to make a quick buck...I'm paying close attention to poops and so far, nothing that I can see.

As a former cat/dog vet tech, I know where I know where my knowledge end and what I learn here on avian/chicken begins.