Not sure what’s going on!? weird things happening!!

[ourrune]

i have recently been hit by a variety of different things. I’ll try to keep it short as I need help but it will be hard. I’ve tried to avoid making a thread on thus but I’m starting to loose it!

Is it possible for my hens to be depressed and stressed out that they lost their rooster? They all had a love hate relationship!

Problem #1
My most hurtful problem. I had been keeping my rooster in a cage away from the girls for 3 days because he was over mating my faverolle and making her bald and I was waiting for some pullets to get older to put him back in the coop with the girls. I let him out every other day so he had the yard one day and the girls would have the yard the next day. On the 3rd day of doing this I let him out and he was fine. He ran out of his cage and I watched him through my bedroom window walk around the yard happy. By the time my hubby got home in the evening he says there’s something wrong with Link (our only rooster) there he was falling over on his side sticking his wing out and diarrhea all over his behind. Mostly everytime he tried to walk he would fall over or easily trip over something. His comb was purple on the edges and he had white soft spots on it. He was also loosing feathers. I thought maybe he had fowl pox as my first generation of 4 year olds had already gone through that and they were fine but the other two that grew up with link that were almost 1 year were fine also. We have mosquitos badly because our second lot floods and we live out in the middle of no where. So I got “life tabs” and put oregano in his water and for a few days he seemed like he might get better. And then one day I couldn’t go visit my chickens because we had a visitor and the next morning he was found dead in our run under our coop where they like to dust bathe sometimes. I didn’t inspect the body I had no idea what to look for and didn’t want to see him like that he was my sweet heart.


A few day later My 4 yr old faverolle started to look pale and walk around with her mouth open and my other 4 yr olds kept their mouths open as well and their combs were only a bit pale barely noticeable. then one of my 15 week old pullets started falling over and not being able to walk a few days later or so and I started to researched and I remembered about mareks so I quickly quarantined her in a cage on the farthest side of the yard. I kept watch over her from afar and she didn’t look good. And we lost her.
So at this point I lost two of my outside chickens and not totally sure why.

Everyone else is still alive at this point today it’s been almost a month. I’ve checked for lice on all of my outside birds (one hen just got done being broody and had two chicks that live in the coop with all of them and walk around with all of them and eat with all of them and they are perfect)
I am unsure with mites. I saw two hens have one or two small but a bit bigger than a flea, bugs on their comb and you could see their butts were full of blood but they weren’t anywhere else on the chickens. (I live in Florida btw)

I have taken out the shavings twice in the whole coop and cleaned coop inside and out with pressured water and inside with dawn soap and bleach water. Then dusted it with DE and poultry dust!


one of the weird things are two of my hens butt feathers look like they have been eaten at they are tattered and torn looking and another one of my hens seems to have lost weight though she’s always been light and she’s loosing tons of feathers everywhere and dandruff. I haven’t seen anything on them. I haven’t much checked their vents. My two 15 week old amerucanas seem perfectly fine along with my broody hens chicks that live with them. So I’ve just been giving them life tab water and was giving some meal worms and plenty food and they seemed to be getting better I even have one hen laying an egg a day.
The other weird thing is not even a week after my rooster passed one of my hens respiratory started to sound funny but then she started to try and crow and now every morning she tries to crow and her respiratory sounds fine.

Now today I went to scoop out droppings to help keep pests down and I see inside the dropping are worms, they are maybe a centimeter long. And then on top of it were some other weird bugs inside of the droppings that are hard to described. They were flat and grey looking stripped maybe and lots of legs and maybe the size of a tick or a bit bigger. So Im emptying out all of the shavings again for the third time in a month which I used to do deep litter method. And I don’t know if these bugs were laid in the droppings or if they are internal parasites!? All I have on hand is corid which is not what they have. The younger amerucanas that seem totally fine sleep in the nesting box away from the hens that sleep on the roost and I saw nothing in their droppings.

Any help or advice for the many problems I am acquiring!?




Problem #2
Inside brooder chicks
I hatched a batch of my own eggs from my rooster who passed. I kept two of his girls. I took in two chicks this lady gave me for free when I bought a few of her eggs to hatch. One of hers died almost immediately, it was a splash amerucana. It seemed to have splayed leg and we tried our best but unfortunately she passed and we were pretty disappointed. I kept these two chicks she gave me with my two girls I kept from my rooster. I noticed something on the other blue amerucana she gave me but thought it was feathers coming in. Needless to say a couple to few weeks later after not being able to pay any real attention to them for a couple of days from family visiting besides giving food and water I finally went to visit with them and my two girls were laying over dying. I picked them up and put their beaks in the water and just barley looked over them and there they were tons of lice EVERYWHERE! I had not noticed anything before besides on the amerucanas head which now I know were eggs. we held them and paid attention to them almost everyday. I knew the amerucana looked kinda funny she was always hunched together but I never had an amerucana before. So my two girls died that day and the amerucana keeps on trucking. we put DE all over it most of the lice died but the eggs won’t go away. We gave it a bath with dawn soap and we keep changing the shavings everyday and putting DE everywhere. I just keep waiting for the last eggs to hatch so the DE will kill them but it’s taking forever. She’s all by herself in a bin on my front porch away from my younger batch of marans and amerucanas on the back porch. So I feel bad for her but she seems healthy and happy. But I do not want to mingle her with my younger batch nor my older hens outside. Is there anything further I can do to help the situation end quicker?

I thank anyone for taking the time to read my ridiculously long post lol but I have been through a lot the last few weeks and I am just not sure what to do anymore! Thanks so much for anyone’s help!!!!

 

[SunshineAnShade]

Sorry your dealing with this! I posted with my own problems earlier today and haven't gotten a reply! I have no experience with either of these issues DE was going to be my suggestion. You may want to sprinkle some food grade DE into their regular food. I've read somewhere that ash is also good for them with killing bugs but I don't know 100%.
For the first issue, I have no idea... I would try researching or YouTube?

My girls were attacked by a fox last week. 3 out of 7 are dead.... Some a few days after.
I have one that developed ascites and prolapsed vent a few days ago. But she also has a large sac sticking out of the vent which I drained. I believe she was injured as well but no outside wounds... I haven't gotten any advice on here from anyone yet. Sorry to drop that on you but was wondering if you had any advice for me. Good luck with your babies.

 

[Labradors]

If you have lice and/or mites, provide the chickens with a sand box so that they can have a dust bath. I made one using a plastic bowl, the kind that people wash dishes in. I buy them at the dollar store for $2.

DE will not work internally, but it might help externally. Be careful not to breath it in as it's very bad for the lungs.

If you Google lice, you will find some good info on how to deal with it. There is also some good info on line about "prolapsed vent".

Sorry I cannot help more, but I'm new at this too.

Linda

 

[Rose Quartz]

I read somewhere what can remove the binding of lice eggs. Cant remember at the moment. Ill go look for it.
Im a bit confused on the timing of the chicken deaths and when you deep cleaned your coop. But the rooster sounds to me like respiratory distress, possibly a source of air borne mould in the coop? If thats what it was then after cleaning you shouldnt have any new sick adults. The other hen that died may have been exposed before cleaning.

 

[Rose Quartz]

The only thing i can find is rubbing the eggs with liquified coconut oil. And if that doesnt work cutting the feathers below the eggs.

 

[rebrascora]

You have a lot going on which can make it confusing and difficult to follow. The things that strike me are that Marek's is extremely common and widespread and can exhibit in all sorts of different ways, so if you have lots of different things going on and you are seeing some paralysis and death in young birds, Marek's is likely the underlying cause but without necropsy there is no certainty. Open mouth breathing is often an indication that birds are overheating. Does that tie in with your weather being excessively hot or humid? Marek's can also cause respiratory issues.

I am unsure with mites. I saw two hens have one or two small but a bit bigger than a flea, bugs on their comb and you could see their butts were full of blood but they weren’t anywhere else on the chickens. (I live in Florida btw)

This sounds more like ticks than lice which tend to live off the skin debris and are more of an irritant. They are normally well hidden under the feathers. There are polarized views on DE use in chicken management. Most of the very
experienced and learned people here on BYC whose judgement I trust will say it does nothing or at best may act as a preventative, but I have had occasions when it has successfully treated an infestation of red mites and other times when it has not. I used a preparatory product marketed for use in such circumstances with success and food grade generic which was not successful, so the grade of DE may be relevant for success. There are however concerns that it can cause respiratory damage not just to the birds that are living in a coop dusted with it, but also the human coming to muck it out. Chickens will usually be able to manage lice by dust bathing but if they are fastened in a coop with no access to dust bathing facilities or the weather is very wet or the ground is frozen and dust bathing is not possible, they can soon overrun them, as can red mites which live and breed in the cracks and crevices of the coop and crawl onto the chickens at night to drink their blood.
Whilst a heavy lice infestation will make chickens' lives very uncomfortable it will not kill them in a matter of a few days and it is my experience that lice thrive on sick birds, so the ones in the coop that died may have suffered heat stroke if the weather was particularly hot and there was not enough ventilation and cool water etc or possibly Marek's too.

I took in two chicks this lady gave me for free when I bought a few of her eggs to hatch. One of hers died almost immediately, it was a splash amerucana. It seemed to have splayed leg and we tried our best but unfortunately she passed and we were pretty disappointed.

My guess would be that this is how you introduced Marek's into your flock. How old were these birds. The one with the splayed leg that died shortly after arrival is sounding a prime candidate for it. It would be interesting to know the dateline for these events?? Ie when you got those birds, how old they were when you got them, when the rooster died and when the pullet died.

The thing to understand about Marek's is that it is a Herpes virus like human cold sores and as such it has dormant phases where birds appear normal and then something will stress the bird and trigger an outbreak. What stresses one bird will not necessarily stress another, so you don't always get a lot of birds showing symptoms at once, it is more sporadic and birds can go months or very occasionally years even between outbreaks and an outbreak can be as minor as an eyelid that will not stay fully open or a bird sprawled on the ground unable to get up and everything in between. Some may recover quite spontaneously and miraculously after a few days whilst others will die. Stress will usually make them worse. It really is a weird disease.

Anyway, that is my take on your situation. The birds with the tattered butt feathers may be actively preening away lice eggs and damaging their feathers in the process or it may be something else irritating them. Reproductive ailments that lead to internal infections can cause swelling and irritation of the vent area, especially in older girls.

I would be supplementing your flock with a good poultry supplement like Nutri Drench or Poultry Cell to support their immune system and probiotics or fermented feed at least once a week to keep their digestive tract healthy, because the Marek's virus also suppresses the immune system, so keeping them as happy and healthy as you can will help to reduce the chance of further outbreaks.

Hens can and do crow occasionally and it may be the sudden demise of your cockerel that has prompted her to take over his role.

 

[rebrascora]

I should say that using products with Permethrin as the active ingredient are the most effective way of dealing with external parasites. Wood ash mixed into soil and compost in their dust bathing sites helps them keep themselves clean of parasites.

 

[Flockandfowl46]

You really need to do your birds and coop with permethrin if you have already been using DE I wouldn't apply any more then you need to get them healthier and then worm them

 

[Eggcessive]

It might help to post a picture of any poop that you are concerned about. Droppings can contain worms, most of which are not seen with the eye, except for roundworms and tapeworms. Getting some fresh droppings tested may help you determine what worms are present. If the poop has been on the ground long, it can become infested with maggot larve from flies, or dung beetles. Valbazen is normally one of the best wormers to use on each individual chicken, unless they have tapeworms which have to be treated more often or with praziquantel.

Also, since you are losing birds, get a necropsy by your state poultry lab if you lose another. The body must be refrigerated in plastic bags, and sent on ice packs. Here is a link for state vets:
http://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm