Need advice/help for sick, dying flock

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC
I'm sorry for your loss.

Can you post some photos of the poop and hens?

I agree, changing the feed is a good idea.

If you need to send a carcass for testing you can find your state lab here:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

 

[alladnar]

I checked on them again this morning, and luckily I didn't lose any more. Most of them still had large crops without access to food, so I'm wondering if it wasn't the feed. A couple had crops that were much firmer than the others. I am assuming this indicates sour/impacted crops, possibly due to the feed? Can this cause the nasty diarrhea? I'll try to post some poop pics later today.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I checked on them again this morning, and luckily I didn't lose any more. Most of them still had large crops without access to food, so I'm wondering if it wasn't the feed. A couple had crops that were much firmer than the others. I am assuming this indicates sour/impacted crops, possibly due to the feed? Can this cause the nasty diarrhea? I'll try to post some poop pics later today.

If all of them are exhibiting similar crop issues, yes - I would go with the assumption it's something they ate. Get a fresh bag of chick feed as recommended - look at the mill date on the bag, get the most recent date you can.

Yes. I would say bad feed/eating something bad would cause diarrhea.
Hard to know if the crops are sour just yet.

If vet care is an option for you that would be good.

If not, then I would be inclined to make fresh plain water available for them to drink. Food is not that important, but they need to be drinking. If they are really bad off, then I would probably try a flush as well - but you need to use your best judgement on that - flushes can be dehydrating so you want to follow instructions carefully. And you got it...very likely they will poop a lot, maybe explosively. There's some flush options in this article here - under "Laxative Solutions" http://extension.msstate.edu/content/solutions-and-treatments

 

[Sonya9]

I would probably buy a different brand in case something happened at the mfg plant. Ask the store if they have had other complaints.

Is there anything else they could have gotten into in the yard? Do you feed scratch grains? If so replace those too.

 

[NatJ]

Immediately change existing feed for a bag of chick feed. Through old stuff out.

If you don't want to throw out the old feed: just feed from a new bag, and let the current one sit somewhere safe, where the chickens can't get it. Then decide in a week or so if it made any difference. Sometimes it's mentally easier to throw something out later, when you're sure about what's going on.

 

[alladnar]

Thanks much everyone for the help and advice.

I don't know what they could have gotten into in the yard. There have been a few mushrooms as it has rained a bit the last week or so. I don't even know if they would eat something like that.

They also seem to be drinking a lot.

Poop picks. Some of the larger ones are below the roost.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

That's not normal. Any way you can take some samples to a vet for a fecal float?

 

[alladnar]

That's not normal. Any way you can take some samples to a vet for a fecal float?

I can try. I am having difficulty finding a vet near me who will deal with poultry.

 

[alladnar]

They also haven't laid for 2-3 days but I thought that was likely due to stress of feeling badly.

 

[alladnar]

I tried flushing on a couple birds with very large soft crops and what I got up looked like mostly all water.