My flock was fine this morning, this afternoon they are dying!

[Kiki]

Do you have a local vet near by?
You could run some fresh poop over to them and let them run a fecal test...it's fairly cheap.

 

[MamaChick74]

Oh my I am so sorry that this happened to you. The sudden loss of a chicken is hard enough never mind 3!! I hope that you can find out what happened and you continue to raise chickens. We started out with 10 and now have 5 and have no clue what happened to the 5 that died..not all at the same time thankfully. Good luck.

 

[Aber]

I'm certainly not against getting some corid and dosing them just to make sure, but I really don't think that was our problem. Have any of you had issues with buffalo gnats/black flies?

 

[Kiki]

It's not about what we all think or don't think.
If you want a for sure answer there are two things you can do:
Get their poop tested and a necropsy to ease your mind and worry.

 

[Kiki]

The more time you spend reading to more you are going to diagnose them with.
You will drive yourself nuts.

Just saying...

 

[christwodog]

It's not about what we all think or don't think.
If you want a for sure answer there are two things you can do:
Get their poop tested and a necropsy to ease your mind and worry.

When my Ameraucana was gravely ill and we thought she wouldn't make it, my vet told me that a necropsy wouldn't detect toxins. She said it would find out things like organ function/failure, disease, etc. Luckily, Kalani survived, but Buttercup didn't - we didn't do the necropsy on her because we were certain it was a toxin of some type.

 

[TinyBirds]

Most common cause is probably coccidiosis if it wasn't a toxin. They can die from it even with poop looking fine i think. We move our chickens to new grass every day and have had no cocci deaths in years, cross fingers. They get it when kept on the same area day after day, especially in rainy weather.
Our county sprays herbidide along our road (just did the other day) and they ignore our big signs saying organic farm, don't spray. It doesnt seem to affect the birds but i still hate seeing them do it. We use boiling water to kill fire ant mounds and wasps, plus our favorite phoebes help eat all the wasps too and nest under the porch every year.

 

[TinyBirds]

I just read about the buffalo gnats, yowza! I didn't know about that and swarms killing chickens. Sounds awful! I read to eliminate standing water and clogged gutters similar to mosquito control, and avoid overwatering plants? Not sure but does sound possible they could be the problem. Scary!

 

[Aber]

Honestly, I'm about as certain as I can be without a necropsy. I'm reading so many accounts of people losing whole flocks to them in my area...and they are BAD this year. The rest of our flock are doing great! We set up a big box fan in front of Penny's favorite hang out to keep the air moving and make it harder for the buffalo gnats to land, and she will forage the yard for a few minutes then run to the fan and stand with her beak right in it for a while. Even the guineas have spent the better part of the last few days in front of the fan. We also got a few of those vanilla scented van air fresheners that I've read keep them at bay, it really seems to be doing the trick!


Oh... And I have 5 new peepers in the brooder in my basement.