First I want to start out by saying I recently lost my job and my husband has been out of work for a year now. We do not have the money to have a vet come out. That being said, we need to know what to do. I am at the point that I am considering putting the entire flock down. This is what has lead up to this ...
In the spring My friend lost a bunch of birds to a family of raccoons, we couldn't seem to catch them and so she moved her birds to my house.
On May 5th we received from Murray Mcmurray and from Welp a large order of chicks. 30 for myself and 70 for my friend.
In May I sold a large group of my chicks to a family and told them if I was wrong and any where roosters they could bring them back.
In June she brought back one Buff orpinton that was a rooster and I traded her for a pullet.
At the end of June I bought 4 hens and 9 ducks from a local exotic animal auction. They where quarantined from the flock for two weeks. (except that around the same time we turned our chicks loose, we free range our chickens, and a few kept popping through the fence into the pen with the quarantined birds)
The week that the Buff orpington cockerel was returned we lost 4 of our chicks (this was before I brought the chickens and ducks home from the auction) We guessed it was from the rain as it had rained almost all week and these where found out in the mud drenched.
The following week it dried up and we didn't loose any.
Starting last week we have lost between 2 and 5 every day. At first it was just the younger ones the 2 month old chicks. Then I found my Buff orpington rooster he was alive but wouldn't move, couldnt seem to open his eyes he was just sitting hunched over by the door to the storage area of the coop. The next day he was dead as well as three more of the young ones. The following day we lost one of our 5 month old Mule ducks. In both cases they where fine the day before healthy and eating and following us all over the yard. The duck was different from the rooster. I noticed when I fed them that morning he wasn't there with the others eating out of my hands. So I went and picked him up and put him over by the food. He ate. A couple hours later I looked outside to see him flopping around on the ground. I went out and it was like he couldn't get his balance couldn't keep his feet under him. I layed my hand on him and he stopped and focused on me he seemed to be saying "Whats wrong with me, Help me!" and I couldn't I picked him up and held him. He died less then an hour later. Since then we have lost a full grown 2 year old Barred rock hen a 5 month old Cochin hen, numerous 2 month old chicks. Today one was dead and three do not look good.
They will be just fine one day, then the next day they are sitting there lethargic and not moving, their eyes will either be swelled shut or look glossy and sickly, they die by the end of the day they start showing symptoms.
My friend took some of her chicks home on the day that the lady returned the buff cockerel Starting last week she has lost out of 28 Chicks -2 months old- all but 6. She had kept them in a shed with a deer they where raising. Yesterday the deer was fine, ate his bottle and was running around. Today it wouldn't drink and wouldn't stand up, by 4pm it was dead. They have also lost a calf that they where bottle feeding. It wasn't kept with the chicks and deer but the milk replacer was in the same shed.
Also Possibly unrelated about the time the rooster and duck died we lost one of our rabbits. She looked sickly one day I gave her extra grass and rabbit pellets, fresh water and a frozen water bottle in one corner of her cage, case she got hot the next day she wouldn't move just layed there even if you touched her. She wouldn't eat or drink. The following day she was dead in her box.
We also lost two turkey poults that had not been kept with the chickens, they where isolated in a tractor but the chickens free range and would lay next to the tractor sometimes.
We allow all our chickens and ducks and guinea's to free range around our acre farm. The neighbor sometimes has cows in the pasture behind our house and they all get along just fine. They have a one stall garage that is extra deep to go in at night and if it rains. We use Hay and straw and pine bedding in their and havn't had any changes in the bedding. They are fed a mixture of cracked corn from our local feed store and Layer pellets from Thiesens. My father in law feeds his the same thing and hasn't lost any. Though he does have a sickly calf that he was told has Toxidious (Sp?) I have been spending hours looking at poultry diseases online and can't find anything that matches this. Their poop seems normal not green and not bloody, maybe a little loose but they eat a lot of mulberry's so its hard to tell because its mainly purple!
To sum it up we have lost Chickens, chicks, Ducks, Rabbit, Deer and a calf. Possibly related possibly not related deaths. They act fine one day then the next they are sickly and die by the end of the day. Also We are Getting NO EGGS. We went from getting close to a dozen a day to nothing. We have gotten three eggs in the last week!
Please let me know what to do. I can't really separate the sick ones as they don't seem sick till the day they die. I love these chickens and ducks and don't want to have to destroy them but I don't know what to do. Will I just keep loosing them until they all die?
HELP HELP HELP!
Melissa
In the spring My friend lost a bunch of birds to a family of raccoons, we couldn't seem to catch them and so she moved her birds to my house.
On May 5th we received from Murray Mcmurray and from Welp a large order of chicks. 30 for myself and 70 for my friend.
In May I sold a large group of my chicks to a family and told them if I was wrong and any where roosters they could bring them back.
In June she brought back one Buff orpinton that was a rooster and I traded her for a pullet.
At the end of June I bought 4 hens and 9 ducks from a local exotic animal auction. They where quarantined from the flock for two weeks. (except that around the same time we turned our chicks loose, we free range our chickens, and a few kept popping through the fence into the pen with the quarantined birds)
The week that the Buff orpington cockerel was returned we lost 4 of our chicks (this was before I brought the chickens and ducks home from the auction) We guessed it was from the rain as it had rained almost all week and these where found out in the mud drenched.
The following week it dried up and we didn't loose any.
Starting last week we have lost between 2 and 5 every day. At first it was just the younger ones the 2 month old chicks. Then I found my Buff orpington rooster he was alive but wouldn't move, couldnt seem to open his eyes he was just sitting hunched over by the door to the storage area of the coop. The next day he was dead as well as three more of the young ones. The following day we lost one of our 5 month old Mule ducks. In both cases they where fine the day before healthy and eating and following us all over the yard. The duck was different from the rooster. I noticed when I fed them that morning he wasn't there with the others eating out of my hands. So I went and picked him up and put him over by the food. He ate. A couple hours later I looked outside to see him flopping around on the ground. I went out and it was like he couldn't get his balance couldn't keep his feet under him. I layed my hand on him and he stopped and focused on me he seemed to be saying "Whats wrong with me, Help me!" and I couldn't I picked him up and held him. He died less then an hour later. Since then we have lost a full grown 2 year old Barred rock hen a 5 month old Cochin hen, numerous 2 month old chicks. Today one was dead and three do not look good.
They will be just fine one day, then the next day they are sitting there lethargic and not moving, their eyes will either be swelled shut or look glossy and sickly, they die by the end of the day they start showing symptoms.
My friend took some of her chicks home on the day that the lady returned the buff cockerel Starting last week she has lost out of 28 Chicks -2 months old- all but 6. She had kept them in a shed with a deer they where raising. Yesterday the deer was fine, ate his bottle and was running around. Today it wouldn't drink and wouldn't stand up, by 4pm it was dead. They have also lost a calf that they where bottle feeding. It wasn't kept with the chicks and deer but the milk replacer was in the same shed.
Also Possibly unrelated about the time the rooster and duck died we lost one of our rabbits. She looked sickly one day I gave her extra grass and rabbit pellets, fresh water and a frozen water bottle in one corner of her cage, case she got hot the next day she wouldn't move just layed there even if you touched her. She wouldn't eat or drink. The following day she was dead in her box.
We also lost two turkey poults that had not been kept with the chickens, they where isolated in a tractor but the chickens free range and would lay next to the tractor sometimes.
We allow all our chickens and ducks and guinea's to free range around our acre farm. The neighbor sometimes has cows in the pasture behind our house and they all get along just fine. They have a one stall garage that is extra deep to go in at night and if it rains. We use Hay and straw and pine bedding in their and havn't had any changes in the bedding. They are fed a mixture of cracked corn from our local feed store and Layer pellets from Thiesens. My father in law feeds his the same thing and hasn't lost any. Though he does have a sickly calf that he was told has Toxidious (Sp?) I have been spending hours looking at poultry diseases online and can't find anything that matches this. Their poop seems normal not green and not bloody, maybe a little loose but they eat a lot of mulberry's so its hard to tell because its mainly purple!
To sum it up we have lost Chickens, chicks, Ducks, Rabbit, Deer and a calf. Possibly related possibly not related deaths. They act fine one day then the next they are sickly and die by the end of the day. Also We are Getting NO EGGS. We went from getting close to a dozen a day to nothing. We have gotten three eggs in the last week!
Please let me know what to do. I can't really separate the sick ones as they don't seem sick till the day they die. I love these chickens and ducks and don't want to have to destroy them but I don't know what to do. Will I just keep loosing them until they all die?
HELP HELP HELP!
Melissa
