Silkies Dying, Not Sure What's Going On. Help?

[Darkfeather]

I've been caring for silkies for over a year now and have been having some pretty bad luck. Only one of the chicks I've raised has managed to live past a year, dying from Mareks, parasites, you name it, while I figure things out.

However, there's one baffling "disease" that I'm not sure about.

My last casualty was today with a lavender hen. I just put in a couple new silkies yesterday and noticed she was a little sulky but figured it was cause of the newcomers. I got her for free because she had a leg injury and couldn't walk well. She's never seemed especially healthy and often laid eggs without shells. However she's always been rather fiesty and active despite that. But today I found her with globs of poop on her rear. After I turned her over and cut it off, she was panting heavily and was very lethargic. I'd just gotten a lav roo for her and decided to take her home where he was to keep an eye her, I keep my coop on my grandparents property since I'm technically not allowed to have livestock there.

On the way home she started thrashing around in the box, making high pitched squeals. By the time I got there she was dead. I noticed there was a little dried blood around her vent also.

I've had another hen or two die a similar death. Lots of poop on the butt and then dead the next day or so. A white hen like that was very stressed and hiding a lot for a while before she died.

I don't know what's going on but its very frustrating and heart wrenching. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Am I not worming enough? Is it something else? I really don't know.

If anyone has any thoughts or ideas, please throw them at me!

 

[Nutcase]

I'm so sorry DarkFeather

it sounds like she could have been eggbound. Are your chickens getting enough calcium? Here is a link that might help:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-treat-egg-binding-in-chickens.html
Again, I am so sorry for you. Keep updating and tell us how she is!

 

[Nutcase]

The poop and blood on her vent are the reasons why I thought she could've been eggbound. An egg could have interfered with her usual 'waste removal'. As for the panting, that was probably stress/heat combined with trying to get the egg out. But, I can't guarantee that egg binding was the problem. It could be something else, but that seems to make the most sense.
Calcium is crucial for a laying hen's health.

 

[Darkfeather]

I'm so sorry DarkFeather

it sounds like she could have been eggbound. Are your chickens getting enough calcium? Here is a link that might help:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-treat-egg-binding-in-chickens.html
Again, I am so sorry for you. Keep updating and tell us how she is!

Well she died so there's really nothing to update. x_o But yeah I dunno. She had a habit of laying shell less eggs so I guess its possible. None of my hens have laid within the past couple months though. Maybe when I handled her, if there was an egg, it could have broken?

I use to provide oyster shell but the silkies never touched it so I took it out.

 

[missnu01]

Give any other hens oyster shell ASAP. That is absolutely what it sounds like. There isn't a whole lot that will do that other than reproductive issues, then again when an animal dies they release their bowels, and sometimes chicken poo has blood in it and that is alright, unless it is a whole lot. And if that is what happened, and you say that you have had a bird die with marek's...then let me share that most of the cases where an adult bird dies for no reason, the birds end up testing positive for marek's...but most adult birds have been exposed in one for or another, sometime in their life, and some of them were totally unaffected and went on to be totally alright...So does Marek's cause these adult birds to die with no cause? Or does it just so happen that most chickens have marek's and are alright? I don't know, and neither does science...So it might be a little intestinal blood in the stool and then a sudden random death possibly caused by an earlier exposure to marek's...Or she could have been egg bound...but hiding before dying, and panting, the shell-less eggs and then with the blood, super sounds like eggbound as I have read about. Haven't experienced it yet---so far....I hope not to.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

All the signs of New Castle disease are present.

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_disease
Signs of infection with NDV vary greatly depending on factors such as the strain of virus and the health, age and species of the host. The incubation period for the disease ranges from two to 15 days. An infected bird may exhibit several signs, including respiratory signs (gasping, coughing), nervous signs (depression, inappetence, muscular tremors, drooping wings, twisting of head and neck, circling, complete paralysis), swelling of the tissues around the eyes and neck, greenish, watery diarrhea, misshapen, rough- or thin-shelled eggs and reduced egg production.
In acute cases, the death is very sudden, and, in the beginning of the outbreak, the remaining birds do not seem to be sick. In flocks with good immunity, however, the signs (respiratory and digestive) are mild and progressive, and are followed after seven days by nervous symptoms, especially twisted heads.

 

[Nutcase]

Well she died so there's really nothing to update. x_o But yeah I dunno. She had a habit of laying shell less eggs so I guess its possible. None of my hens have laid within the past couple months though. Maybe when I handled her, if there was an egg, it could have broken?

I use to provide oyster shell but the silkies never touched it so I took it out.

Ooooh, I feel so dumb...sorry Darkfeather I didn't read your post properly!