Need advice to avoid losing any more chickens!

[grammaschicks]

It's too late for two of my girls, 1 died 2 weeks ago, 1 in the late fall. Both had exactly same symptoms-started losing weight, breastbones became prominent, then felt like nothing but feathers and bones. Combs became pale and shriveled. Would not dust bathe, kinda stood around and looked confused. In the end, would not perch, eat, drink. Tried everything I knew to help them, extra food (yogurt, eggs, etc), dusted them-but did not worm them. I have dusted my remaining chickens and their coop, wormed them, and vaselined their legs. Is there anything else I could or need to do? I only have 2 hens left - they seem ok, but they do have runny poop. They are both 4-5 yrs old. What do you think was wrong with the ones that died?

 

[LarryPQ]

4-5 years is older for a chicken.

Any stressor can cause a hen to decline. Maybe the heat, and mites/lice (which seem to strike right now)?

 

[chkn]

I'm thinking internal/external parasites or some kind of wasting disease.

 

[dawg53]

Worm them.

 

[hcppam]

Quote:
x2?

 

[kidcody]

So sorry, wish I could help! I have no idea what that could be. I work at a vet clinic but we would have to take blood and .......

 

[massagechick]

sort of sounds like what mine did last year. The one thing that worked was electorlyte water(smart water) w/sugar (1 tsp sugar per gal) and then I also added sulmet. the sugar helped keep them going long enough to get the meds in them, I used a dropper/syringe at first then after 2 days no more sugar and fed them wet mash with a spoon-they hated the yogurt- got them back on their feet again and out of 8 I lost 4 total 3 before I could find something to work.

you can also get an electrolyte mix for their water at most feed stores so you dont have to get the expensive water. Good luck. Please let us know how they do?