Mother hen dead, Chicks still surviving. What precautions to take? Please Help!

[zom23gangte]

Dear BYC members,

The mother hen of my little chicks died after showing signs of lethargy and blindness( her eyes were clouded and she was bumping into walls). She seemed fine in the morning but in the afternoon, she became quite reclusive and went to a quite place and stood motionless without her chicks. I gave the mother hen a dose of Cephalexin veterinary oral powder but it didn't seem to work. I thought her chicks might lift-up her spirits and brought them to her and it seemed to work for a while. So, when it started getting dark, I put her on a carton box with her chicks just outside my window as I was afraid she might pass away without me knowing and her chicks too might be harmed in the process. However, at night, there was a sound of rapid wing flapping and when I went to check, I saw her stiff dead body. I brought the chicks inside with me on a new carton box and installed a lamp to keep them warm (It's not really cold here so, I kept it quite far away from them). Is it flu? How can I prevent the chicks from dying? I have taken care of healthy baby poults before and that's not difficult, but I'm really worried if the chicks might have contracted something from the mother hen. The chicks seems to be fine for now but you never know how fast things can change. Have I done something terrible for the chicks by placing them with their sick mother?

Please help!

By the way, here are a few pics of them.

Following their momma during happier times...



Scratching the ground with her...



Posing for the lens...



Guerrilla mode...



Buttons lead the way...



Momma gets sick...



Buttons try to cheer her up...








Buttons new home. For now.

 

[Avalongirl83]

Keep a close eye on them and give them some extra vitamins in their water to help give their immune system a boost. Unfortunately, you won't know for a while whether the chicks will come down with whatever the mama has. How old are the chicks?

 

[zom23gangte]

Keep a close eye on them and give them some extra vitamins in their water to help give their immune system a boost. Unfortunately, you won't know for a while whether the chicks will come down with whatever the mama has. How old are the chicks?

Thank you Avalongirl83 ,I will do that. The chicks are around four weeks. Let us hope that it was something only the mother hen had. Oh, and i forgot to add one more thing, four out of my original six cockerels passed away day before yesterday (maybe it's connected. maybe it's not) and I also forgot to mention that there were 10 chicks in total and only 5 survived. I searched around the whole compound and I couldn't even find a trace of those 5 chicks :'( . Really feeling helpless.

 

[Avalongirl83]

Poor thing, that really sucks. I would definately keep trying to find the cause of the initial deaths. Post as many symptoms for each bird here as you can and maybe I or another BYC member can help you ID the cause. I know that on many of the forums a strong recommendation is to send a bird away for a necropsy (must be fresh and refridgerated, not frozen). I will look and try to find the link for you. In the meantime, keep those babies warm and well feed and watered. I'd definately add a boost to their systems. Do you have an indoor brooder where you can watch for symptoms? If I am right, at 4 weeks they should be at about 85 degrees for best health.

 

[zom23gangte]

Poor thing, that really sucks. I would definately keep trying to find the cause of the initial deaths. Post as many symptoms for each bird here as you can and maybe I or another BYC member can help you ID the cause. I know that on many of the forums a strong recommendation is to send a bird away for a necropsy (must be fresh and refridgerated, not frozen). I will look and try to find the link for you. In the meantime, keep those babies warm and well feed and watered. I'd definately add a boost to their systems. Do you have an indoor brooder where you can watch for symptoms? If I am right, at 4 weeks they should be at about 85 degrees for best health.

The Symptoms that I posted earlier are about as much as I know. All the other casualties (cockerels) happened at night or early morning. I also noticed that the first two dead cockerels refused to sleep on the same branch that they usually roosted in (with the other four cockerels) the night before they passed away. Does that help? BTW, I'm from Nagaland, North-east India and Necropsy is not an option that I can avail here, but thanks anyway for the thought. The chicks are well fed and watered and they are inside the room with me. I'm waiting for the morning so that I can let them out to scratch around in a covered pen. I don't have a brooder per se, but I do keep them in a parcel box with 100 Watts bulb to keep them warm. As I've mentioned earlier, it isn't too cold out here (at night) so I don't think that I will need a more powerful heat source. I adjust the lamp according to the chicks behaviour as mentioned in Storey's guide to raising poultry which by the way is my go to book for any chicken related queries. But, a book can only take you so far. Thank you for your kind thoughts.

 

[WindStep]

Aw sad beginning!

 

[Avalongirl83]

Quote:
Yeah, I guess it would have helped if I had looked at where you were from. Sorry about that. :-/

 

[zom23gangte]

Aw sad beginning!

Thank you for your concern WindStep, I thought about that too but I consider myself lucky cause I am already a member when I needed help the most. Imagine if I had not been a member and hadn't known of BYC, I would have been looking all over the internet and god knows where

. So, all in all, it's not that bad. At least I'm getting valuable advice and concern from other fellow chicken lovers.

 

[Nambroth]

Oh dear, I am so sorry. If she was brooding the chicks, and she had a disease, the chances are high that she already spread it to them-- so, no- I don't think you did the chicks any harm by bringing them to her at the end!
Do you have any resources that will test poultry for you? I do not know what you have available in India. If you do, it might be worth having momma hen tested just to see if you are dealing with something infectious.

Yes, please do share as many symptoms as you can think of that your hen had. Even minor things might be a clue, including any problems you've had with any other birds in your flock.

I'm very sorry for your loss. She was a lovely hen!

Edit: Oops! I see you have already answered my concerns. You have lost cockerels with similar symptoms, then? It sounds like maybe you have something in your flock. For now, check the things that you have control over... such as feed, water. Make sure that the feed is fresh and free of any molds, and that the chickens cannot get into anything unusual. Rotting vegetation, carcasses, and very wet areas can be problematic. Make sure that they can't get into anything that might have lead-- small metallic objects, old paint chips, etc.

If it is a disease, it is hard to diagnose and understand what might be happening without testing (I know you can't get this done where you live). But you can at least take away any problems that might exist in the environment.

Do you think you would feel comfortable examining your hen? If you can stomach it, it might give you some clues, if you find obvious problems such as tumors, etc.

 

[zom23gangte]

Quote: Thank you for not looking at where I was from, cause that tells me that you are more concerned about the well being of my chicken rather than where I originated from (which btw, is not the problem at hand).