Sick chickens - should we butcher them?

[Kristia]

We now have 25 chickens that are 5.5 weeks old. We've lost another 10+ in the last 3.5 weeks. We treated for coccidiosis last week but we are continuing to find chickens dead, one every 2 or 3 days (often first thing in the morning, splayed out on their backs). We considered treating them for necrotic enteritis but decided maybe the problem was too much medication, so didn't treat - have seen no change in the death rate. Some of them have looked under the weather for a day or two before but others just seem to have keeled over. Lost 2 this week - each about 4# so we started thinking maybe we should just butcher them before they all croak - bad idea or OK?

Thanks for your input!

 

[chickenzoo]

the problem is that you don't know the reason they are dieing, so you don't know if it can be bad for you aswell........

 

[dawg53]

If you're going to butcher them, that is up to you...but I wouldnt eat them. Perhaps you can send one off to have a necrospy done to find out what's happening. You can contact your county extension agent, state agricultural department or even a local vet to find out how to go about doing it. Good luck.