Need help with prostrate chickens, not eating/drinking, loosing feathers

[ElisaAF]

Hi, all! A few hours ago I noticed that two of my 16 month-old Embrapa051 (Rhode Island Red X Plymouth Rock hybrids) were very prostrate, breathing faster, eyes closed, barely moving, not even to get to their lunch (they are usually very excited and run to the food immediately). They also lost a lot of feathers since this morning.
I have 2 gris cendre that share the same coop but didn’t show any change in their behaviour.
I didn’t notice any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma in any of the chickens.
I immediately thought that the problem could be that we changed their feed to pellets a couple of days ago (also changed brands) and they didn’t like it at all. I had noticed that they were not eating much, so they could be undernourished.
As an emergency measure, I gave them diluted vitamins in water and, after that, diluted normal feed, both in a syringe. Since it is very warm here (between 36-40º celsius in the afternoon), I also thought they could be overheated, so I soaked them (gently) in a bucket of fresh water.
That all happened about 5 hours ago. An hour ago (around 6:00 pm here) they seemed somewhat better, but were still not moving much (picture below). Their poo are transparent and very liquid.
I separated them from their two other coop mates and they are spending the night alone inside the coop (small, wooden, covered, well ventilated, closed, lined with wood shavings). I left water (with vitamins), mash made from their feed and some scrambled eggs (that they love) inside, at their disposal. It should rain tonight and the temperature should drop to around 20º celsius.
What do you think could have happened? Should I do something else / different to treat them?
At this point, I am only hoping that they will wake up better tomorrow.
Thanks in advance!

 

[ElisaAF]

The second picture shows the fallen leaves I found this afternoon.
Thanks again!

 

[ElisaAF]

Unfortunately one of the chickens didn’t make it through the night and the other one is also almost gone : ( She is very weak now and can’t hold her head up.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry about your hens.
Is the other one still alive?
They may have suffered from heat stroke, but your comment about both losing a bunch of feathers quickly is interesting too. Where did they lose the feather? On the back? Could you have had a predator get after them?

If the other hen is still alive, then syringing fluid into her and hold a cup o f water to her beak to let her drink often would be good. A bird suffering heat stroke is usually not well enough to drink on their own, even if water is available beside them.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. Is there any place in your part of the world where you could get a necropsy done on the body (kept cold, but not frozen?) Do they have plenty of shade and ventilation in their area during the heat of the day? Could they have gotten into something poisonous or eaten dead animal or fish remains? Botulism can cause sudden paralysis, including limber neck and closed eyelids, and feathers may come out easily.

When changing feed, I usually mix it for a week or more. I did once buy a feed that my chickens absolutely would not eat, so I stick to major brands. Chickens may peck and eat feathers if they lack protein in the diet. Molting can cause sudden feather loss as well. I hope that your other chicken survives.

 

[ElisaAF]

I'm sorry about your hens.
Is the other one still alive?
They may have suffered from heat stroke, but your comment about both losing a bunch of feathers quickly is interesting too. Where did they lose the feather? On the back? Could you have had a predator get after them?

If the other hen is still alive, then syringing fluid into her and hold a cup o f water to her beak to let her drink often would be good. A bird suffering heat stroke is usually not well enough to drink on their own, even if water is available beside them.

Thanks for your reply!
Sadly the second one didn’t make it either. They lost feathers from all over their body, not from a specific do place. We checked and none of them had any injuries or other sign that they had been attacked. So at this point I guess the combination of heat wave and not eating much, some form of acute viral or bacterial disease or poisoning seem to be the three most probable causes of the deaths….
At least so far our other three chickens look fine. They are in a separated part of the coop since saturday and have been eating, drinking and otherwise behaving normally

 

[ElisaAF]

Sorry for your loss. Is there any place in your part of the world where you could get a necropsy done on the body (kept cold, but not frozen?) Do they have plenty of shade and ventilation in their area during the heat of the day? Could they have gotten into something poisonous or eaten dead animal or fish remains? Botulism can cause sudden paralysis, including limber neck and closed eyelids, and feathers may come out easily.

When changing feed, I usually mix it for a week or more. I did once buy a feed that my chickens absolutely would not eat, so I stick to major brands. Chickens may peck and eat feathers if they lack protein in the diet. Molting can cause sudden feather loss as well. I hope that your other chicken survives.

Thank you for your reply!
Unfortunately a necropsy would have cost us more than we could spare right now. We ended up incinerating the bodies, together with the shavings from the coop and the dried leaves and other organic material that were in the run floor. The chickens’ area was build around a mature mango tree so there is some shade during any part of the day. This time it didn’t seem to have been enough, though Of course now we are considering what else we could do to avoid this happening again, since temperatures above 30º cesius are becoming more and more common in our region : / any ideas on that would be very much welcome!
Regarding the change in their feed, I learned my lesson and will certainly be much more careful in the future… for now, since we have a newly bought 40 kilos feed bag, what i am doing is briefly breaking up the pellets in the blender before feeding them to our three remaining hens (they were used to having crumbles until last week). They seem to like it. Also, as a preventive measure (since we are not sure about what caused the deaths) we are giving antibiotics to the hens that survived (enrofloxacina). They are also getting vitamin and calcium suplements. I hope it works and they get through this in good health!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry that you lost the other one too.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about losing the second chicken. I remember reading that a sudden period of going without water can cause a sudden molt. Chickens will sometimes keep others from drinking or eating. Hopefully, you won’t lose any more.

 

[ElisaAF]

thank you

I'm sorry that you lost the other one too.