I am right there with you in the way I feel about all of this. None of mine seem to be having leg issues, just respiratory, but it's like it all just came about so fast and hit us like a freight train. Growing up I lived on a farm and we kept about 300 chickens at all times. We always lost them due to old age or predators, we never had any sort of illness sweep through our flock like this has swept thru mine. Disheartening puts it mildly. My daily routine has become so complicated with all these sick chickens and the stress of not knowing what is going on, how long it will last, and how fatal it will be is really starting to get to me. Our oldest girls just started laying and now they have all quit, so now they aren't even earning their keep and I'm having to buy meds and syringes and electrolytes etc., and while I'm not destitute, I'm also not made of money, and it sure is putting a hole in my wallet. All of my birds have come from hatcheries, with the exception of 5 that I got from a breeder here locally, but he is regularly tested by the state. However, none of this started happening until a week or two after I got the chicks from him, granted they were not the first ones to come down with anything, but two or 3 of them are now sickly. I'm so sorry that you are going through this too and I totally know how ya feel!!!I lost the sickest baby about 2 hours ago, one of the red broilers. Went in to check on them- they are in the laundry room at one end of the house, and it had passed. The body was still warm so I put it in a baggie and now it's in the fridge. The number to the lab in Austin is also disconnected :/ . But I will be in Austin tomorrow so maybe I can drop it off. Perhaps 411 has an updated number. My mom is coming down and bringing some Tylan50 and some syringes. Maybe it will help, at least with the big broiler, Sumo. Sumo is in my bathroom at the other end of the house, and I am not letting the kids near any of the birds. I also disinfected the whole chick room today with lysol, bleach and rubbing alcohol, changed the bedding and disinfected the feed/water containers too. And I disinfected the bathroom Sumo is in.
The thing with the chicks looks almost just like what the turkey poults had back in April/May. The poults were born fine and then at about 2-3 weeks their legs started going out. Their joints looked swollen and purplish, and they hobbled around like they were in pain. Eventually they couldn't walk anymore and stopped eating and drinking. Another brood of poults about a month later had the same problem, though I let the mom raise them outside since it was warmer and not rainy anymore. At about 3-4 weeks their legs started going bad. One poult's right leg started to twist backward. I thought maybe I was dealing with a vitamin or mineral problem, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually I had to put them all down.
I have raised broilers before, and this is the first time any of them have gotten sick, but it is also the first time I have tried raising any since the turkeys.
So far the EE's and silkies chicks still look fine. But I am worried, I really don't want to lose any more. I don't know if the antibiotics I have been using are working, though the broiler that died did seem to get a little better at first, then it started to get worse again after a day.
Sumo seems worse than ever. She won't eat or drink anymore either. I am wondering if it is gapeworm with her. no nasal or eye discharge still, no head shaking or muscus that I can see, but that sound she makes is awful. I am thinking the "sneezing" may even be coughing. And she was fine yesterday! And no diarrhea either.
Should she die, I will take her to the lab, or possibly do a necropsy here myself. I lost a bantam EE last week, and she was gasping and couldn't walk. I thought at first maybe she was eggbound, then I thought maybe a sour crop or blocked crop. A necropsy only revealed gas in her intestines and chest cavity. I think it may have been a bacterial infection, but I don't know. It's so strange. The symptoms don't seem to be consistent with all the birds but I feel it is related. Chicks have no respiratory issues that I can tell. Sumo has no leg problems that I can tell. And the bird we lost last week had respiratory and leg problems. And it has all happened so quickly. All of them have been hatchery birds too, except the silkies.
I am so disheartened by this. I know it is just another part of raising chickens but I have never had so many sick at one time. I have never lost so many in a single year.