Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[SweetPoultry]

Remember the cockerel I purchased? It turns out that you guys were right, I noticed blood in his poop, I took him to the vet and guess what: He had coccidiosis :/

 

[Alaskan]

Remember the cockerel I purchased? It turns out that you guys were right, I noticed blood in his poop, I took him to the vet and guess what: He had coccidiosis :/

 

[SweetPoultry]

*hugs back*

 

[chickisoup]

MORNING EVERYONE! Wow, where did everybody go? I get busy for a couple days and poof!!!

 

[chickisoup]

Well, little miss Gravy lasted longer than I expected her to. She actually showed improvement on Thursday. I held and petted her for awhile, then placed her in the greenhouse with fresh water some egg mash (she'd started drinking again but not eating) where she could be warm and comfortable and she positioned herself by the door where she could lay and watch the other girls in the yard. Checked on her later and she had moved to the shade in the yard! She seemed to have a good day but late in the pm I found her standing under a bench looking cold so I put her back into the coop on the straw where she could be safe and rest. When I went to lock up in the evening she did not go to the roost but had nestled into the clean straw on the floor instead and I knew then her time was short. When I opened up Friday morning she had herself kind of propped against the door. She looked at me bright eyed when I said good morning and gave her a pet but when I gently scooted her over a bit so I could get inside, she just fluttered once or twice and she was gone. It was almost like she waited to say good-bye. She was buried next her friend Noodle under the big White Pine.
In 20/20 hindsight, I am beginning to get more suspicious of Marek's. The odd thing tho is Noodle 3 /12 and Gravy was 2 1/2 yrs old. I always thought it mostly hit young birds. Noodle was super healthy and her symptoms presented completely different from Noodle's.
My 3 Aussies are just over a year but they are Cackle Hatchery birds and I think were vaccinated tho I know the Mareks vaccine doesn't stop them from getting it. I also have one production red left, Dumpling, from the same hatchery batch as Gravy (Sunnyside Hatchery which I seriously doubt vaccinated for anything) but she was always super healthy where Gravy had a rough start and never quite laid properly and was always smaller. Guess I will just have to watch the others, I may never know and I will have to make sure any new birds are vaccinated. Lord I hate not having a decent vet!!!

 

[ronott1]

Well, little miss Gravy lasted longer than I expected her to. She actually showed improvement on Thursday. I held and petted her for awhile, then placed her in the greenhouse with fresh water some egg mash (she'd started drinking again but not eating) where she could be warm and comfortable and she positioned herself by the door where she could lay and watch the other girls in the yard. Checked on her later and she had moved to the shade in the yard! She seemed to have a good day but late in the pm I found her standing under a bench looking cold so I put her back into the coop on the straw where she could be safe and rest. When I went to lock up in the evening she did not go to the roost but had nestled into the clean straw on the floor instead and I knew then her time was short. When I opened up Friday morning she had herself kind of propped against the door. She looked at me bright eyed when I said good morning and gave her a pet but when I gently scooted her over a bit so I could get inside, she just fluttered once or twice and she was gone. It was almost like she waited to say good-bye. She was buried next her friend Noodle under the big White Pine.
In 20/20 hindsight, I am beginning to get more suspicious of Marek's. The odd thing tho is Noodle 3 /12 and Gravy was 2 1/2 yrs old. I always thought it mostly hit young birds. Noodle was super healthy and her symptoms presented completely different from Noodle's.
My 3 Aussies are just over a year but they are Cackle Hatchery birds and I think were vaccinated tho I know the Mareks vaccine doesn't stop them from getting it. I also have one production red left, Dumpling, from the same hatchery batch as Gravy (Sunnyside Hatchery which I seriously doubt vaccinated for anything) but she was always super healthy where Gravy had a rough start and never quite laid properly and was always smaller. Guess I will just have to watch the others, I may never know and I will have to make sure any new birds are vaccinated. Lord I hate not having a decent vet!!!

I am sorry you lost her!

Here in California the Necropsly service is free. Check to see if your State has a service like that. Ours is: http://cahfs.ucdavis.edu.

Mareks is an active infection and is similar to herpes. That happens when they are young and most chicks do not show symptoms. About two years later some of the chickens will get cancer. The vaccination is mostly to lower the number that get cancer. The commercial operations can get a good vaccine. The one we get is not as good. The good one is injected into the egg.

Off to make coffee!

 

[Alaskan]

Sad! So sorry for your loss!

 

[SweetPoultry]

Well, turns out I was wrong about having 2 broodies. I just wasn't paying close enough attention, sigh.  Turns out the second one wasn't broody after all, she was sick.  She seemed fine when I shooed her out of the nest box yesterday pm and her normal self this morning or as normal as any of them were behaving with a bunch of strangers running around putting on a roof.  They all went into hiding as I expected but later when I went out to check on them and give them a treat, Gravy didn't come out from under the bench. Odd.  I scooped her out and put her on my lap where she promptly closed her eyes and went to sleep as I rubbed her crop.  Not her at all.  I eventually put her in the coop and hours later she was standing exactly where I left her. She finally now is laying down in the straw on the coop floor.  I don't expect her to be alive in the morning.  She is showing no outward signs, no wheezing, no limping, no hard crop, nothing except when I first put her in my lap I noticed her comb was tilted over and her one wing was trembling but stopped as I stroked her and of course the total lethargy.  I am at a loss.  Why am I losing my birds?  The symptoms don't match up (Noodle who died a month earlier had an on again off again bad limp w/o reason for month prior to her suddenly going down hill and gone within 2 days).  My girls are healthy happy hens until one at a time suddenly they are not.  Oh, and the 3rd red I had that I gave to my neighbor a couple months ago possibly died the same way this one is going.  She has some reds from the same batch of chicks mine came from so she isn't sure which one died.  (She doesn't pay much attention to who's who in her flock)  What I am afraid of is my rescue birds had more than just the CRD I worked them thru and were carriers of something worse.  They were never fully healthy no matter how hard I tried and either died or had to be culled one by one.  My last rescue has been gone more than a year now but both Noodle and my 3 production Reds were here before they were gone.  Anyone have any ideas?  My Cackle Aussies are 15+ months old now and have been perfectly healthy, except for taking turns being broody.  I just hope whatever is taking my other girls is just not going to be passed on to them.  I'm down to 4 birds going into winter but I just am afraid to add any more until I know for sure what is going on. ARRRGH!!!

Well, little miss Gravy lasted longer than I expected her to.  She actually showed improvement on Thursday.  I held and petted her for awhile, then placed her in the greenhouse with fresh water some egg mash (she'd started drinking again but not eating) where she could be warm and comfortable and she positioned herself by the door where she could lay and watch the other girls in the yard.  Checked on her later and she had moved to the shade in the yard!  She seemed to have a good day but late in the pm I found her standing under a bench looking cold so I put her back into the coop on the straw where she could be safe and rest.  When I went to lock up in the evening she did not go to the roost but had nestled into the clean straw on the floor instead and I knew then her time was short.  When I opened up Friday morning she had herself kind of propped against the door.  She looked at me bright eyed when I said good morning and gave her a pet but when I gently scooted her over a bit so I could get inside, she just fluttered once or twice and she was gone.  It was almost like she waited to say good-bye.  She was buried next her friend Noodle under the big White Pine.
In 20/20 hindsight, I am beginning to get more suspicious of Marek's.  The odd thing tho is Noodle 3 /12 and Gravy was 2 1/2 yrs old. I always thought it mostly hit young birds.  Noodle was super healthy and her symptoms presented completely different from Noodle's.
My 3 Aussies are just over a year but they are Cackle Hatchery birds and I think were vaccinated tho I know the Mareks vaccine doesn't stop them from getting it.  I also have one production red left, Dumpling, from the same hatchery batch as Gravy (Sunnyside Hatchery which I seriously doubt vaccinated for anything) but she was always super healthy where Gravy had a rough start and never quite laid properly and was always smaller.  Guess I will just have to watch the others, I may never know and I will have to make sure any new birds are vaccinated.  Lord I hate not having a decent vet!!!

I'm so sorry, I know how losing a pet can be as sad as losing a human friend I bet she is now resting in Chicken's heaven, I'm lucky enough to have a vet that loves poultry as I do, and I hope you find one too.

 

[chickisoup]

Thanks everyone. This wasn't really as bad as losing my miss Noodle. I had been close to her for over 3 years. She was the first hatched actually on the property and was like my little puppy with feathers (that loved to "sneak attack" land on my shoulder). Miss Gravy was always my little sweety but I really didn't expect her to live to a ripe old age. She had too many problems as a pullet. Also, unlike the unexpected loss with miss Noodle where zi actually only got a few moments to hold her in the evening only to find her gone in the morning, with Gravy I had plenty of time to make her comfortable, cuddle her and even to say good bye.

Ron- Thank you again for the info. Your simplification helps to clear up a lot. I was giving myself a headache trying to make sense of all the conflicting info I was getting online.
As for a free necropsy, unfortunately very little is even close to free thru our university system here in Wisconsin. I had checked into it years ago when one of my original rescue birds died oddly. It was expensive and complicated then so I can only imagine it's worse now.

Sweet poultry - thank you

Wow, are you blessed!!! A vet the not only will see your birds but loves poultry too??? There is little hope for me finding one. I have contacted every vet within a couple hour's drive of me and nothing. Our last last animal vet retired several years ago so now anyone with livestock has to haul them to a couple hours south

.

 

[chickisoup]

I am sorry you lost her!

Here in California the Necropsly service is free. Check to see if your State has a service like that. Ours is: http://cahfs.ucdavis.edu.

Mareks is an active infection and is similar to herpes. That happens when they are young and most chicks do not show symptoms. About two years later some of the chickens will get cancer. The vaccination is mostly to lower the number that get cancer. The commercial operations can get a good vaccine. The one we get is not as good. The good one is injected into the egg.

Off to make coffee!

Thank you again Ron. Just looked up the cost here. Base cost for a chicken necropsy is roughly $100 plus carcass disposal fee by the pound plus some other fees I asked clarification on plus the special packaging and shipping costs of course. Oh, and there was something about requiring submission by a vet which I am sure wouldn't be done for free. I really do love living in Wisconsin, honest.