Neighbor Poisoning Our Chickens?

[ARB]

I looked up Oklahoma State Univ. Dept. of Animal Science. They have a poultry resorce and you can contact a poultry specialist there. Try it. It might offer some suggestions.

 

[RyanAndMeri]

Thanks again everyone. I'm getting a cheap webcam to put out on the fence. Haven't decided which one yet. Also I've e-mailed our Extension office (trouble finding their phone number) so we'll see how that turns out. The Attorneys at my wifes office concur with your advice about filing a report and returning the vet bill to them. The info about the homeowners insurance, and getting an affidavit from the eye witness are great ideas! Thanks so much for your stories and support and great advice everyone. I'll post a follow up if anything gets resolved as I go ahead with these actions.

 

[Zalf]

My neighbour has sprayed around her house to kill cockroaches. She did not intentionally mean to do it, but I think my chickens are dying as a result. Possibly your neighbour has done the same?

 

[Thee chicken]

It could be rat poison we had the problem when our neigbours had put out rat bait then sick mice were seen as the chicken could attack the mice and eat them too with the mice already poisoned it was the same kind of symptoms as you say

 

[Mr Beaks]

We have an emergency with chickens getting sick lately and dying I'm wondering if anyone knows if these symptoms are a disease or the neighbor poisoning our chickens. To understand why I think it's our neighbor I'll give you a brief background. They have a little terrier that got into our yard a few months back and killled some chickens. We let them come get their dog and frankly forgave them. It happened again FOUR MORE TIMES. Each time we frankly forgave them and tried to mend the fence (it digs and digs until it gets through.) The last time it got through it killed our favorite chickens - 5 total. It was heart breaking. We saw that they had already patched the hole in the fence (the dog dug so much it broke a piece of the fence out) and there were fresh shovel marks on our side of the fence. We visited them with a sick and dying chicken in hand and the neighbors wife lied right to our face and said "it wasn't our dog, we were home all day and it never was let out." Well our other neighbors saw the whole thing and confirmed she was lying through her teeth.


So now we have burried wire along the fence and made it all but impossible for the dog to get through. But last week and now this morning we've had chickens getting seriously ill with the same symptoms. Last week we put down Serenity our beautiful Black Orpington hen. And now this morning one of our yellow orps has the same symptoms. She's weak, has no appetite, she falls over and is wobbly. she's in a molt so she doesn't have any eggs so I doubt it's egg-bound. I know our neighbors hate our chickens, and the city has told them they wont touch our chickens, so I think they're taking matters into their own hands. Does anybody know the symptoms of poisoning? The last chicken that died looked almost riga-mortized even before she died, she was stiff, couldn't move her lower body had all but frozen-up (and it wasn't that cold out so it's not that.) She just seemed slighly paralized and dying. Please help if you can.


Ryan & Meri

I know this is a really old thread but was curious of the outcome. Did you get necropsy done and was any poison detected? If so, what?

My rooster of 2 1/2 years has suddenly become gravely ill and the symptoms match the ones you described perfectly. The thought of poisioning didn't even enter my mind until DH jogged my memory so I thought it couldn't hurt to do some research, which led me to your post.

Just over a year ago we moved from a big home with several acres between properties to a smaller one with much less property. Although I didn't really want to move I was excited to see the new place had a huge dog run tucked neatly under the trees just outside our back slider! Plenty big enough to accomodate our 2 large coops plus a growout coop with room for them to run. At the time we only had 1 RIR and an EE pair. (DH notes that the neighbor complained about the rooster from the start.) We decided to try hatching some EE's and got 1 pullet from the hatch. Long story short - the neighbor let his dog roam freely on our property. It was constantly coming over to the run and eventually got ahold of the 1 pullet and killed it. Several weeks passed and their dog (black shepherd) came around the side of the house and attacked my chihuahua! We were told that the "dog is old and could/would never do that!" but DH and I witnessed the entire thing as we were sitting on our front porch at the time. Since then things have been calm - until now. They keep their dog on their property and we ate the cost of the vet bill to keep the peace. I'm not one to jump to conclusions or assume the worst but the similarities are striking.

 

[CjcJdb]

i went through the exact same thing! in fact, that is why i have no chickens right now. my chickens started dying left and right..they were fat and healthy until they were old enough to go outside, and then they would start dropping..the last chicken i had was one that i had recieved from a friend..a beautiful hen that was a year old. we moved briefly and we allowed her to roam the yard with no problems. when we moved back to the same house (long story), she dropped dead in 2 days in the same way that all my other chickens had, along with my dogs and a kitten. i didnt have proof but i filed a police report all the same.
some people are just sick.

How did the people get ahold or so close to your animals that you didn't see them??