Some of my meat birds are dying.

[LoneCowboy]

My meat birds have been doing really well. Yesterday DH comes in and says there's problem with one of my birds. He's not going for the food like the others. He'd move a little but acted very lethargic. I went out and brought him in. He acted half dead. DH kept asking me what was wrong with him. I said I didn't know, acting half dead is a common symtom of most any chicken disease.

Then this morning I lost another one. I didn't notice any others acting strange yesterday.

It's been very cold here but I've kept 2 heat lamps in the tractor with them so they could go warm up if they needed too.

I've not noticed and bloody poops.

Any ideas? Anything I should do to prevent more losses.

 

[77horses]

aww that's too bad.

What kinds of meat birds are they? Leghorns? Jersey Giants? Cornish X Rocks?
I'm really sorry about your losses.

And I'm truly so sorry that I can't help. I don't know what is causing this. I'm praying that someone with more experience will come along.

God bless you and your chickens!

 

[Matt A NC]

If these are production birds(big white broilers) then their hearts may be giving out. It doesn't take much stress at all. Even with the heat lamps the temp changes may be what is stressing them.

How old are they? size/weight?

Matt

 

[mikarod]

How old are they?

If they're acting half-dead...do you mean their neck is just kind of "flopping" around? Are their feathers coming out easily?

Those are symptoms of Botulism.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

If you have the Cornish crosses, you need to cull them at not later than 10 - 12 weeks. They are not meant to live a long life and actually suffer if you let them. I did this ONE time and swore I would not do it again. By the time I got to them (culling) they had horrid injuries like broken legs and wings. All they did was stay in a fairly small encloser.

 

[LoneCowboy]

They are 4.5 weeks old. They are cornish X's from Meyer. They kinda puff themselves up in a ball and breath heavily.

Neighbor is over and he said that he's loosing chickens right and left. I've not seen any of my layers act funny though.

Should I put some antibotics in their water? i really don't know whatelse to do.

 

[Firemedic442]

I have only grown meat birds for 3 years. But, whenever they start dropping fast it seems to be coccidiosis. Usually after 5-6 have passed I not some changes in poop and see blood. Usually they are 4-5 weeks old.

 

[Bandana]

Sounds like some sort of respiratory ailment. Don't know what it is, but I would suppliment with vitamins/minerals to help their little immune systems until I found out what was going on and what to do about it. Good luck to you.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Ok Firemedic, you hit the nail on the head. I medicated last night as a precaution, and bingo, all the tell tale signs of cocci this morning. I usually watch that really carefully. But with 50 big fat pooping machines, they can cover the evidence, or you don't see it in time.

 

[carousel]

I didn't loose any meaties but I when I noticed a few had soft poops THEN I saw a RED poop! I knew I had cocci.
as much as I would like NOT to medicate them, they are now on corid in their for a week see if I can get it under control and have put off their processing for a week or 2.
I weighed my 6 week old meaties this weekend and the 2 I weighed were 5 and 6#
I think I will stick to layers <G> for now until I have much more space.