Sick birds, what's wrong???

[ChelseBrun]

Yesterday morning when I went to let my chickens out, I found one dead, laying on its back. Then today I've noticed that a lot of my roosters have swollen skin around their eyes. One is especially acting strange; he acts like he is really hot, (beak open, wings puffed out,) and gets up every couple of minutes to drink water. He also seems to have minor leg pain, as he sits down at every possible moment and walks like a Cornish.
They are Red Ranger (from Hoover's Hatchery,) about six and a half weeks old.
More details on the dead one: when I put them all to bed the previous night, I didn't notice anyone acting strange. The next morning he was laying on his back, with his legs stretched out and one wing flopped out. He was cold. The right wingtip was broken. Otherwise, there were no noticable scratches, (and I checked for them fairly well.) His feathers came off easily, I mean, really easily, except for the bigger wing feathers and upper neck feathers.
Any ideas??? What can I do?
Thank you!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

"loose feathers that are pulled out easily" from this website:

http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/Botulism.pdf

I was reading that botulism causes loose feathers that are easily removed. You might google it to see what you think??

http://oldvet.com/poultry-botulism/

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/205400.htm

 

[ChelseBrun]

Thank you for the reply!
The article from MN State really helped! I also found an article (http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?t=7962629) that did a really good job of summing up Botulism.
Some of the symptoms seem similar, such as easily plucked feathers and reluctance to move, and they definately have access to possible sources of infection, (the dog is constantly dragging up dead things and there is a compost heap nearby, and the last few days have been warm with very high humidity.) But the limpness doesn't really fit. Also, he was stiff when I found him. It's possible that the feather thing was because of how long he had been dead? It wasn't more than 10 hours since I had last seen them all healthy, just overnight. Also not sure how the broken wing would fit with Botulism? Or the upside-down position?
Thank you very much for the suggestion! Even if it turns out to be a false lead, the knowledge still helps for "next time."
Have a great day!

 

[FlyHigher]

Newcastle disease?
What color is the stool?

 

[ChelseBrun]

Hmm... Not sure about Newcastle... Do the symptoms set in quickly, like within 10 hours or so? All I've noticed in my live birds are: swelling of the skin around the eyes, dirty behinds, some odd stool, (don't remember the specifics,) and "I'm too hot" types of behavior. What I'm finding on Newcastle is mostly respitory and nervous symptoms; do you know of any other symptoms?
Don't know for sure what stool color was for the dead one, since I didn't do a complete necropsy. (The liver bled all over everything so I couldn't see very well, and the flies were about to carry it away! Although I've never done a postmortem on a cold bird, it still seems odd to me that the liver was SO bloody... )
As to the others, there's 40 left, and no one has "left me" since I found this one yesterday morning. I haven't been able to figure out whose stool is whose, but I have seen several quite watery ones... I'll watch tomorrow morning when I check them again...
Thanks for the reply!

 

[FlyHigher]

Some varieties of ND do not cause nervous symptoms--You can google "Velogenic Viscerotropic Newcastle Disease" or VVND yourself.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

http://www.canadianpoultry.ca/chapter_v.htm
here's a website that goes through a necropsy and gives suggestions

It probably won't help you but oh well I thought you might find it interesting!

 

[FlyHigher]

Yesterday morning when I went to let my chickens out, I found one dead, laying on its back. Then today I've noticed that a lot of my roosters have swollen skin around their eyes. One is especially acting strange; he acts like he is really hot, (beak open, wings puffed out,) and gets up every couple of minutes to drink water. He also seems to have minor leg pain, as he sits down at every possible moment and walks like a Cornish.
They are Red Ranger (from Hoover's Hatchery,) about six and a half weeks old.
More details on the dead one: when I put them all to bed the previous night, I didn't notice anyone acting strange. The next morning he was laying on his back, with his legs stretched out and one wing flopped out. He was cold. The right wingtip was broken. Otherwise, there were no noticable scratches, (and I checked for them fairly well.) His feathers came off easily, I mean, really easily, except for the bigger wing feathers and upper neck feathers.
Any ideas??? What can I do?
Thank you!

Have you ever checked Fowl Cholera(http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/61/fowl-cholera-pasteurellosis).
However, I still think it's VVND or another ND variant. Good luck!

 

[Jpickar]

Hello - I ordered chicks from Hoovers Hatchery because my local hatchery closed and they suggested ordering from them. This is only my second year having chickens (free range) and I only had 2 chickens that survived from last year (Fox/Coyote). So I have 2 adult chickens and 20 teenage chickens.

Anyway, suddenly about 3 weeks ago I noticed some of the chickens eyes were swollen and now one of my adult chickens also has a swollen eye. There is no discharge from their eyes or their noses. Every now and then I will hear a sneeze but no outright symptoms of a respitory infection. Of course my adult chicken got this after I combined them with the teenagers. Did you ever figure out what your chickens had?

It seems that the new chickens brought whatever illness this is into the coop, but I cannot figure out what the real issue is. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Hello - I ordered chicks from Hoovers Hatchery because my local hatchery closed and they suggested ordering from them. This is only my second year having chickens (free range) and I only had 2 chickens that survived from last year (Fox/Coyote). So I have 2 adult chickens and 20 teenage chickens.

Anyway, suddenly about 3 weeks ago I noticed some of the chickens eyes were swollen and now one of my adult chickens also has a swollen eye. There is no discharge from their eyes or their noses. Every now and then I will hear a sneeze but no outright symptoms of a respitory infection. Of course my adult chicken got this after I combined them with the teenagers. Did you ever figure out what your chickens had?

It seems that the new chickens brought whatever illness this is into the coop, but I cannot figure out what the real issue is. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps031
here's an eye link
sneezing can be from dust too