- Jun 30, 2013
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- 0
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I just lost two hens within 7 days of each other, and I'm concerned we may have some sort of disease in our flock. Any thoughts this community may have about what might be going on would be much appreciated! Here's the backstory:
We had 8 laying hens, various breeds, which I purchased from other people as adults. Back in mid-April, one of our girls fell sick. She was, as best I know, about 3 years old and looked like an Australorp. She got a droopy comb, became very lethargic, wasn't eating, and stopped laying. I examined her and discovered that she was extremely swollen just below the vent. I initially thought she was egg-bound, but after more research and a phone call to an avian vet, ascites due most likely to internal laying seemed more probable. After a few days she seemed a bit perkier and I put her back in the coop. I don't think she ever laid again, her comb remained droopy, and she was always the first to roost every night, but she was eating fine and running around with her girlfriends. She hung in there until one week ago, when we found her dead in the coop.
Sometime in May, maybe 2 weeks after I first examined the chicken described above, another one of our hens fell ill. She's a 3 or 4 year old game hen, a tough little bird. She was fine one moment, and maybe 5 minutes later I went back out and found her lying on the floor of the coop, unable to stand or walk. She had her legs splayed out, toes apart, legs tense and outstretched, one in front of the other almost like she was doing the splits. She was laying on her side. She was unable to close her toes even to grip the roost. After an hour or so, however, she was fine again. We asked the guy at our feed store about it and he suggested that maybe she had had the misfortune of eating a bug or something that had been poisoned or exposed to pesticide. Nothing more happened, and we put it behind us. This hen lays almost every day and acts totally normal.
Then today, I found another bird dead on the floor of the coop. This was a young barred rock, only about a year old -- she had started laying in January or February of this year. She was absolutely fine yesterday, then this morning, she was dead. There was a very small amount of blood around her nostrils, but no other sign of trauma. Her legs, however, are splayed out in exactly the same manner I described above, and her neck is twisted around as though she were looking behind her or pecking something on her back between her wings.
I am at a complete loss for what might be going on. I don't know if the two deaths are related or not, I don't know if the temporary paralysis incident is related to either death, both, or neither...
We considered the possibility that the barred rock experienced the same paralysis symptoms as the game hen, but then overheated or dehydrated because she was unable to get to water... we live in southern AZ and the high temperatures are currently in the neighborhood of 110 degrees F. It seems awfully fast for her to die of dehydration, but it I suppose it may be possible in an animal her size... Other people have suggested simple heat stress. I just put out a little tub of water for them to stand/splash around in, hosed down the coop, and put out a couple frozen 2 liter bottles. The coop is also very well shaded and ventilated, and they have an automatic waterer so they never run out of drinking water. We've also considered the possibility that our flock is infected with some sort of disease and the game hen was able to fight it off, while the barred rock succumbed.
We've been having a huge problem with wild sparrows getting in through the poultry wire and eating the chickens' feed -- I'm a little stumped on what to do about that. I've seen people put bird netting over the poultry wire, but the problem with that is that the sparrows get their feet tangled in it and die gruesome deaths. I've also considered a treadle feeder, but haven't tried it. The birds would still be able to get into the coop, but maybe they wouldn't if there were no readily available feed to attract them... At any rate, I'm concerned about the possibility that the wild birds may have introduced some pathogen to my flock. I've also noticed some signs that they may have mites -- I havent seen any actual mites, but a few of the hens --not all-- have been pecking their feathers out just above the base of their tails. I just bought some dust at the feed store to get rid of any mites they may have.
I've tried to do some research online about what might be going on here but I haven't had much success narrowing it down. Chicken diseases are complicated and there's a huge amount of overlap in easily observable symptoms! Seems like the real diagnostic criteria require lab tests and/or much more technical physical examinations than I'm qualified to do. I'm hoping that some of you out there who have more experience with chickens than I do will have some thoughts on our little chicken mystery... I really don't want to lose any more of my flock, but I have no idea what to do for them.
Thank you all very much in advance!
We had 8 laying hens, various breeds, which I purchased from other people as adults. Back in mid-April, one of our girls fell sick. She was, as best I know, about 3 years old and looked like an Australorp. She got a droopy comb, became very lethargic, wasn't eating, and stopped laying. I examined her and discovered that she was extremely swollen just below the vent. I initially thought she was egg-bound, but after more research and a phone call to an avian vet, ascites due most likely to internal laying seemed more probable. After a few days she seemed a bit perkier and I put her back in the coop. I don't think she ever laid again, her comb remained droopy, and she was always the first to roost every night, but she was eating fine and running around with her girlfriends. She hung in there until one week ago, when we found her dead in the coop.
Sometime in May, maybe 2 weeks after I first examined the chicken described above, another one of our hens fell ill. She's a 3 or 4 year old game hen, a tough little bird. She was fine one moment, and maybe 5 minutes later I went back out and found her lying on the floor of the coop, unable to stand or walk. She had her legs splayed out, toes apart, legs tense and outstretched, one in front of the other almost like she was doing the splits. She was laying on her side. She was unable to close her toes even to grip the roost. After an hour or so, however, she was fine again. We asked the guy at our feed store about it and he suggested that maybe she had had the misfortune of eating a bug or something that had been poisoned or exposed to pesticide. Nothing more happened, and we put it behind us. This hen lays almost every day and acts totally normal.
Then today, I found another bird dead on the floor of the coop. This was a young barred rock, only about a year old -- she had started laying in January or February of this year. She was absolutely fine yesterday, then this morning, she was dead. There was a very small amount of blood around her nostrils, but no other sign of trauma. Her legs, however, are splayed out in exactly the same manner I described above, and her neck is twisted around as though she were looking behind her or pecking something on her back between her wings.
I am at a complete loss for what might be going on. I don't know if the two deaths are related or not, I don't know if the temporary paralysis incident is related to either death, both, or neither...
We considered the possibility that the barred rock experienced the same paralysis symptoms as the game hen, but then overheated or dehydrated because she was unable to get to water... we live in southern AZ and the high temperatures are currently in the neighborhood of 110 degrees F. It seems awfully fast for her to die of dehydration, but it I suppose it may be possible in an animal her size... Other people have suggested simple heat stress. I just put out a little tub of water for them to stand/splash around in, hosed down the coop, and put out a couple frozen 2 liter bottles. The coop is also very well shaded and ventilated, and they have an automatic waterer so they never run out of drinking water. We've also considered the possibility that our flock is infected with some sort of disease and the game hen was able to fight it off, while the barred rock succumbed.
We've been having a huge problem with wild sparrows getting in through the poultry wire and eating the chickens' feed -- I'm a little stumped on what to do about that. I've seen people put bird netting over the poultry wire, but the problem with that is that the sparrows get their feet tangled in it and die gruesome deaths. I've also considered a treadle feeder, but haven't tried it. The birds would still be able to get into the coop, but maybe they wouldn't if there were no readily available feed to attract them... At any rate, I'm concerned about the possibility that the wild birds may have introduced some pathogen to my flock. I've also noticed some signs that they may have mites -- I havent seen any actual mites, but a few of the hens --not all-- have been pecking their feathers out just above the base of their tails. I just bought some dust at the feed store to get rid of any mites they may have.
I've tried to do some research online about what might be going on here but I haven't had much success narrowing it down. Chicken diseases are complicated and there's a huge amount of overlap in easily observable symptoms! Seems like the real diagnostic criteria require lab tests and/or much more technical physical examinations than I'm qualified to do. I'm hoping that some of you out there who have more experience with chickens than I do will have some thoughts on our little chicken mystery... I really don't want to lose any more of my flock, but I have no idea what to do for them.
Thank you all very much in advance!
