- Oct 2, 2012
- 6
- 0
- 7
Hi everyone,
I know this is not a pleasant topic, but I have something going on and can't find out what it is. I have looked at many different things, but I'm not finding the exact fit to what I have going on. Currently 3 different issue's with 3 different chickens and all are adults, in a weeks time frame.
A little back ground info on the flock, to help with the issue.
I have only added a month ago 3 new hens, quartined like your supposed to for 2 weeks, then introduce to the flock accordingly. Some of the flock has been vaccinated and some have not been vaccinated for Marek's disease. 6 hens are 4yrs old, the rest are just starting to turn 1 yr to the youngest being 8 months old. Free range grass pasture, fresh water, crumble, oyster shell, and grit. We give them scratch every day once a day. We have 2 less than year old coops for them, cleaned out regularly, I"m about to do a bleach/water spray on them, and mite treatment just because we want to take that step. Recently wormed the flock, like 3 months ago. I have not seen any bloody poops anywhere, when walking the chicken pasture looking for eggs, or in the coops.
The only other issue is a Norwigian Rat that we caught alive in the pen, and one other rat may be same breed trying to store food in the one coop that the hens use the most, I would find it in corners when I take the coop apart to clean, the last time this happened was 3 or 4 months ago.
The flock is mixed breeds as well some pure bred some crosses. The flock is owned by me and my mother in law.
My first hen is a Bantam Amearucana cross 11 months old named Gimpy, not vaccinated by the breeder I bought her from. January or February she had an incident where she tried to escape the chicken pen and ended up with a small left leg limp from the incident, nothing bad, and you could barely tell after she healed. Well I go out 1 week ago and she's limping noticably. I'm thinking ok, since it's the same leg as her prior injury it just got re injuried. Not so much as 2 days pass and I notice she's barely walking right, holding it close to her body like it hurts. Well, what made me decide to remove her was when my bantam roo jumped on her and she collapsed under him. I decided she would not get better if I didn't take her away and let her heal on her own. Well, we suspect that this could have happened when the 3 or 4 araucana's decided to gang up on her and may have caused her to hurt her self in trying to get away. My mother in laws 4 araucana's have been here of late ganging up on my younger hens and beating the tar out of them, they will look for ways to corner one and just start beating on it. So, we suspected that this is/or may have happened, but she was not getting better, I then find her on her back after she tried to walk over a small perch I had for her, Out came the perch, she was not able to balance very well, and then things started down hill more, her other leg started having issue's and she was acting like she was paralized. This along with my noiticing her Comb was not it's normal color, and was showing signs like it was flaky dry, or shedding dry skin. It had shrunk a little, but it's normal red became light pink and with white flakes. She was very alert, eating all the time and drinking water up until I decided to have her humanely Euthanized because she basiclly could no longer walk. No, depression, content being in the crate, with me holding her, or any other signs to name. She was my favorite so her death was hard for me.
Next, is her sister, not sure if they were full sisters, but I got them from the same breeder. Same breed as above hen, and not vaccinated. The day after I took Gimpy away she started to show slight signs of depression, Well the morning after I Euthanized Gimpy, I find her dead. I have no idea why she died, there was no signs of injury or illness with her. She was eating, drinking, and acting like a normal chicken the day before. So, I'm completely shocked by this death.
Third up is an Austrolorp hen, my mother in laws. She got from Wilco, age is about 4yrs, vaccinated for Marek's disease. I go to feed 3 days ago this is 2 days after the first died and one day after the second died. She has a right leg injury, She has never gotten hurt and had a bum leg. She's able to use it if needed, but it's being held up by close to her body. I didn't notice it until I started throwing scratch as she was just sitting on the ground, but when 3 other hens ran her over and she finally got up I could tell. I instantly quartine her, she's currently still alive. No, indications of having a recent fight with the mentioned Aracuana's which are the same age and raised with her, eating, drinking, and very alert. She goes in and out of the nesting box she's in when she feels like it.
So, we are a bit unsure as to what is going on. All the signs are a bit different with each of the birds, currently none of the remaining flock are showing any signs or having leg troubles.
I have looked up Marek's disease information and none of the photo's match how these birds look with the leg signs, out away from the body at weird angles. No, this is close to the body like it hurts. I know that this is a little out of the normal to have Adults get Marek's, but not completely unheard of and everything I read says chicks 10-12 weeks is when it rears its ugly head. Since only 2 have/had leg problems with each one being a different leg, and the one that died with no signs; I can't find anything that points me in a direction that fits the problem, signs, or symptoms. Yes, I did read all the signs and symptoms for Marek's and well to me it just didn't fit the bill. I would like to try figuring this out so I can be more aware of it, but I'm not having any luck finding any other diseases or illness that could have possibly caused this. Some one I know suggested Mites, but we checked and found none, but after that is when we decided to do the mite treatment on the coops just to be safe.
Any ideas, information, suggestions, would greatly be helpful. Thank you for your time, sorry this is long, but I wanted to best describe what is going on and with each chicken to give you as much information as possible to help figure this out.
I know this is not a pleasant topic, but I have something going on and can't find out what it is. I have looked at many different things, but I'm not finding the exact fit to what I have going on. Currently 3 different issue's with 3 different chickens and all are adults, in a weeks time frame.
A little back ground info on the flock, to help with the issue.
I have only added a month ago 3 new hens, quartined like your supposed to for 2 weeks, then introduce to the flock accordingly. Some of the flock has been vaccinated and some have not been vaccinated for Marek's disease. 6 hens are 4yrs old, the rest are just starting to turn 1 yr to the youngest being 8 months old. Free range grass pasture, fresh water, crumble, oyster shell, and grit. We give them scratch every day once a day. We have 2 less than year old coops for them, cleaned out regularly, I"m about to do a bleach/water spray on them, and mite treatment just because we want to take that step. Recently wormed the flock, like 3 months ago. I have not seen any bloody poops anywhere, when walking the chicken pasture looking for eggs, or in the coops.
The only other issue is a Norwigian Rat that we caught alive in the pen, and one other rat may be same breed trying to store food in the one coop that the hens use the most, I would find it in corners when I take the coop apart to clean, the last time this happened was 3 or 4 months ago.
The flock is mixed breeds as well some pure bred some crosses. The flock is owned by me and my mother in law.
My first hen is a Bantam Amearucana cross 11 months old named Gimpy, not vaccinated by the breeder I bought her from. January or February she had an incident where she tried to escape the chicken pen and ended up with a small left leg limp from the incident, nothing bad, and you could barely tell after she healed. Well I go out 1 week ago and she's limping noticably. I'm thinking ok, since it's the same leg as her prior injury it just got re injuried. Not so much as 2 days pass and I notice she's barely walking right, holding it close to her body like it hurts. Well, what made me decide to remove her was when my bantam roo jumped on her and she collapsed under him. I decided she would not get better if I didn't take her away and let her heal on her own. Well, we suspect that this could have happened when the 3 or 4 araucana's decided to gang up on her and may have caused her to hurt her self in trying to get away. My mother in laws 4 araucana's have been here of late ganging up on my younger hens and beating the tar out of them, they will look for ways to corner one and just start beating on it. So, we suspected that this is/or may have happened, but she was not getting better, I then find her on her back after she tried to walk over a small perch I had for her, Out came the perch, she was not able to balance very well, and then things started down hill more, her other leg started having issue's and she was acting like she was paralized. This along with my noiticing her Comb was not it's normal color, and was showing signs like it was flaky dry, or shedding dry skin. It had shrunk a little, but it's normal red became light pink and with white flakes. She was very alert, eating all the time and drinking water up until I decided to have her humanely Euthanized because she basiclly could no longer walk. No, depression, content being in the crate, with me holding her, or any other signs to name. She was my favorite so her death was hard for me.
Next, is her sister, not sure if they were full sisters, but I got them from the same breeder. Same breed as above hen, and not vaccinated. The day after I took Gimpy away she started to show slight signs of depression, Well the morning after I Euthanized Gimpy, I find her dead. I have no idea why she died, there was no signs of injury or illness with her. She was eating, drinking, and acting like a normal chicken the day before. So, I'm completely shocked by this death.
Third up is an Austrolorp hen, my mother in laws. She got from Wilco, age is about 4yrs, vaccinated for Marek's disease. I go to feed 3 days ago this is 2 days after the first died and one day after the second died. She has a right leg injury, She has never gotten hurt and had a bum leg. She's able to use it if needed, but it's being held up by close to her body. I didn't notice it until I started throwing scratch as she was just sitting on the ground, but when 3 other hens ran her over and she finally got up I could tell. I instantly quartine her, she's currently still alive. No, indications of having a recent fight with the mentioned Aracuana's which are the same age and raised with her, eating, drinking, and very alert. She goes in and out of the nesting box she's in when she feels like it.
So, we are a bit unsure as to what is going on. All the signs are a bit different with each of the birds, currently none of the remaining flock are showing any signs or having leg troubles.
I have looked up Marek's disease information and none of the photo's match how these birds look with the leg signs, out away from the body at weird angles. No, this is close to the body like it hurts. I know that this is a little out of the normal to have Adults get Marek's, but not completely unheard of and everything I read says chicks 10-12 weeks is when it rears its ugly head. Since only 2 have/had leg problems with each one being a different leg, and the one that died with no signs; I can't find anything that points me in a direction that fits the problem, signs, or symptoms. Yes, I did read all the signs and symptoms for Marek's and well to me it just didn't fit the bill. I would like to try figuring this out so I can be more aware of it, but I'm not having any luck finding any other diseases or illness that could have possibly caused this. Some one I know suggested Mites, but we checked and found none, but after that is when we decided to do the mite treatment on the coops just to be safe.
Any ideas, information, suggestions, would greatly be helpful. Thank you for your time, sorry this is long, but I wanted to best describe what is going on and with each chicken to give you as much information as possible to help figure this out.
