OEGB's dying please help!

[isaacsmommy104]

Hello all,
I have a serious problem lately with our chickens. We have had 4 chickens die in the last month for unknown reason. All I know is that they start having muscle spasms, they are still alive, and then within several hours they are dead. Eating, drinking, all normal. Any idea? I don't want to bring new chickens in until I know what the heck is happening. My son, who is 10, is devastated. His champion OEGB spangled hen also died. They were the best birds and would fly up and land on his shoulder while he took care of everyone. I plan on stripping the pens and spraying them down with bleach water and bleaching all the feed and water cups. I don't know what else to do. We had been to the Delmarva show at the beginning of March. We purchased two birds there. All our birds were AI tested and pollurum tested before we went. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[ranchhand]

Random guess, but it's an idea, anyway. Could they be eating something poisonous?

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

Did you isolate the new birds for a month before you put them in with your flock?

 

[NHchicks]

Any antifreeze or other potential harmful chemicals they could be getting into?

 

[isaacsmommy104]

Thanks for the replies. They do not have access to any chemicals, I suppose there is a random chance that someone evil poisoned them (really hope not), and no I did not keep them isolated for a month, I did, however, keep them isolated for 2 weeks. I bleached the coops and re-bedded them. Hopefully it was a freaky fluke. I don't know.

I am going to wait a bit before we buy any new birds. Maybe I'll get some hatching eggs since those will take a while to hatch and then I can still keep them separated in a brooder. All the birds that died are ones that had contact with one another. The one remaining that is alive is currently being isolated. All the other birds we own had no contact with any of the ones who died. It's all very frustrating.

On the bright side, my husband is so upset that my son is so devastated he said, "Figure out what's wrong and get more chickens!" He NEVER says get MORE chickens! Lol! Thanks for all the suggestions.

Tracy