my chickens are dying! help!

[Chickenfur]

last tuesday, my cukuo marran hen died, we don't know how old she was, now one of my EEs is dead! she had a hole in her vent and there was blood everywhere, (nesting boxes, roosts, walls,other chickens, and floor) the weird part is that they both died in the same spot and there was nothing wrong with the CM, what should i do?! help!!!!!!

 

[chickletranch]

So sorry for your loss. Can you give us more inf?. What happened to your Marran exactly? How big was the hole in your EE? Did it look like she'd been attacked, or prolapsed? How old was she? Is their pen/coop secure from predators?

Lynn

 

[Chickenfur]

the marran looked like she died of old age (thats what we thought at first) as i said we don't know how old exactly, but we know she was over a year and a half, looked like prolapsed, the EE was would have been a year in april, they haven't been outside at all (still lots of snow!), no predators could have gotten in (we built the coop ourselves), all though, there had been coyote tracks by the coop, and we saw two the other day. the CM was acting weird the night before she died, she used to not let you touch her, but, she was letting you do any thing, one of my WRs was pecking at the EEs butt, around 8 hours before we found her dead. hope we can prevent this from happening again!

 

[theFox]

Looks from the description you provided that your EE got nailed by her own flock mates.

Likely had a prolapse that you missed or was bleeding, then another flock member likely the WR noticed it and kept going at the EE's wound and likely others in the coop also from your description, the intestines likely got ruptured and that was the final straw.

Unfortunately that happens, sorry that you lost a flock member.

Watch your flock for signs of increased pecking or feather picking. Pay particular attention to that WR.

 

[chookchick]

Sounds like you have a serious pecking and cannibalism issue going on. They are stuck inside the coop because of bad weather? How big is the coop? Any chance you could clear an area so they could get outside? Make sure they are also getting plenty of protein. Keep them busy with "toys" like hanging cabbage heads, flock blocks, extra feeders, piles of leaves, hay, etc...anything to keep them from pecking each other. Don't add any extra light. Get you hands on some Blu-kote to put on the pecked areas. Any that have blood will have to be separated out. I sure hope you can get a handle on this soon! Keep us posted..
ETA--if one seems to be the instigator, (WR) get her separated out with a crate or similar, until the weather gets better...

 

[Chickenfur]

it gets warmer every day, and they were out once sometime last week, we don't have any "toys" we will try to get some ASAP!

 

[Chickenfur]

now my LB has a bloody vent! what should i do?! i already have her by herself, but i don't know what to do next!!! HELP!!!

 

[briana1975]

Get some blue kote. It works. Our chickens and turkeys are in more often due to really cold temps in the winter and when the tom struts the chickens peck him in the butt. Once there is blood they don't stop. All we do now is keep his butt covered with the blue kote, it sprays on, and they stopped pecking right away. He has healed all they way. We just try to keep watch for pecking. All I do for entertainment with the chickens is I go out 2 or 3 times a day and throw some scratch into the wood chips. It keeps them busy scratching around for it.


Edited to add where are you and how cold is it?

 

[theFox]

If you are lighting your birds reduce the intensity or go to red lights.

Remove all treats (this in particular means scratch as well) unless they contain more protein than your normal feed or you can bring the total protein level up to that of their normal feed. See if you can get a higher protein level feed, if you can use it (the prior note about treats still holds). Make certain your birds are getting the correct amounts of calcium in case the higher protein feed doesn't have enough.

As a quick protein boost toss them some cat kibbles as a treat.

Inspect every single bird for wounds, when found clean and treat the wound, cover any red areas with blue kote. Keep the wounded birds separate from the other and only buddy them up if both birds were buddies to start with.

Increase the available floor space for your birds to at least 4 square feet per bird, this doesn't include the roost area, nest boxes, feeder area, or the waterer area.

Hang some cabbages to provide some greens and as a diversion (freeze them if you can) other greens put in an net (onion) bag can be used as well, put them high enough so the chickens have to jump up off of the litter to reach and peck them.

Find the bird that is doing most of the pecking, isolate her away from everyone else, no going back to the coop at night with the others, no run time with the others, total isolation for several days. If there is more than one bird doing it they also need isolation. This is to drop them several pegs on in the flocks peck order.

It doesn't take long for this kind of situation to get out of hand so keep an eye on them.

You might also as a possibility check for rats. They will damage the hind ends of birds if they can reach them when they are on the roost.

Though from your prior description that isn't likely the case.

 

[chickletranch]

i agree with the others, and would add that you should thoroughly clean the wound before spraying with blu-kote. sounds like you were saying the marran died of "old age" at a year and a half old? we have hens that are 5 years and still going strong.

you can also supplement their feed with sunflower seeds, or give them some scrambled eggs as a treat to increase protein. if you can find fresh corn on the cob, put some ears in the coop...it will give them something to peck.

best of luck,
lynn