Mystery of the dead chickens

[Roadtrippin]

Hello! I’m new to this site and I’m hoping to get some ideas on how to proceed. I lost my favorite chicken approximately 6 weeks ago. She had been losing weight for weeks and eventually died. I have no idea what killed her but dewormed the rest of my flock after her death and hoped for the best. Today I lost another chicken (now have only 5 left) and I’m out of town for the next 5 days with no way to have a necropsy done. If I think about it, this chicken had been showing signs of disease, but I wasn’t smart enough to put 2 and 2 together...pulling away from the flock, not eating treats as exuberantly, and just recently losing her feathers ( I thought she was molting...). What should I do now to protect the rest of my flock??? I’m scared I might have to give this up if I can’t adequately protect my feathered babies.

 

[Chickens :)]

Hello! I had that exact same problem. My hen began loosing weight over a couple of weeks and eventually died. I gave her egg, apple cider vinegar and wormed my flock out but that still didn’t help. Earlier on I suspected her to have mereks because I recently had a case where i bought 6 chicks and they were all infected with the disease. Mereks stays in the ground for 5-6 months so that could possibly be why you had the other chicken die aswell. I hope this helps with your situation! (Also, did your chickens get vaccinated when they hatched because if not they are more likely to get the disease)

 

[True Patriot]

What is their diet? Feed, treats, and suppliments? What is the temperature and weather where you live? What did you notice about their behavior that changed? Posting pics of the birds, their poop, and their living arrangements may give a clue to help you figure this out.

 

[Roadtrippin]

Th

Hello! I had that exact same problem. My hen began loosing weight over a couple of weeks and eventually died. I gave her egg, apple cider vinegar and wormed my flock out but that still didn’t help. Earlier on I suspected her to have mereks because I recently had a case where i bought 6 chicks and they were all infected with the disease. Mereks stays in the ground for 5-6 months so that could possibly be why you had the other chicken die aswell. I hope this helps with your situation! (Also, did your chickens get vaccinated when they hatched because if not they are more likely to get the disease)

 

[Roadtrippin]

Thank you for your response. I had never heard of Marek’s disease and just had to look it up. I will have to check the other girls for signs of Marek’s. None of the other ones look sick to me, but then I didn’t think my last girl was sick either; however, this does give me a place to start. None of my girls were ever vaccinated. All of them contracted coccidiosis and were treated and all came through it fine. To my knowledge, that’s the only disease they’ve ever had. Thank you.

 

[Roadtrippin]

What is their diet? Feed, treats, and suppliments? What is the temperature and weather where you live? What did you notice about their behavior that changed? Posting pics of the birds, their poop, and their living arrangements may give a clue to help you figure this out.

 

[Roadtrippin]

Thank you for your response. I live in southwest Florida.....it’s hot and humid with temps in the 90’s. I have a small run on the side of my house with a well built, permanent coop in the center. Their run is surrounded by trees and bamboo, no grass grows there but they get plenty of heat relief in the shade. The coop has sweet pdz in their poop boards, pine shaving in their hen boxes, and fine play sand underneath their coop and run. I scoop out the boards, coop, and sand every 3-4 days and compost that outside of their environment. I change their water (5 gallon buckets with nipples) and replenish their feed at that time. They eat bugs, 16% layer pellets, and occasional fruits from our trees out back. Their treats are mostly dried meal worms and occasional cracked corn ( not much cuz I was taught that’s like fast food for them). The biggest change for my first chicken was weight loss, loss of appetite, and anemia. Never lost a single feather. This lastchicken is the same, except no anemia ( her comb was always a reddish pink), and she started losing feathers 2 weeks ago, just before I left on vacation. I can’t take pics because I’m not home yet. I had 6 chickens, now 5, and for 3.5 years that I’ve had them, there’s been very little drama with them and have never lost one. This is killing me because I have no idea where to start to prevent another bird falling ill. They are my feathered kids and I love them