Strange things have been happening...

ChickenOwner2313

In the Brooder
Oct 11, 2017
29
23
29
Dallas, Texas
We have owned chickens for a very many years, and a couple months ago, after raising 8 more chicks to add to our flock, have established a good flock of 14 hens, very nice and docile, and without problems-- until we started having problems.

First of all one hen got stuck in between the food bin and a bag of food, we think either she fell, or hid there and got stuck. She was still alive when we found her, but she died that night.

Second of all we had a hen (I'll call her hen1) who seemed almost sick, she didn't try to get to the food when the other chickens were gathering around it, and kind of walked around aimlessly. We thought she might be sick, but it didn't seems that big f a problem, yet...

Third of all we found hen1 sticking her head in the corner, looking dead, but when we pulled her out, she immediately perked up and ran to another corner with the other hens following her trying to peck her. Her crown was badly injured and she was terrified. We quarantined her for a day in our "chickery" (a small shed where we raise chicks every year) and then put her in a separate dog crate in the coop with the other chickens with her own food and water.

Fourth of all we decided to figure out who was picking on her and try to quarantine them in the "chickery" for a day or two so that when we return them they would have to reestablish their place in the pecking order. We did so about 4 days ago to two hens(hen2 and hen3), and returned them 3 days ago. When we were out there today, hen2 and hen3 seemed sick like hen1 and were being picked on.

Also, hen2 sees to have a messy bottom, and hen1 sort of, but not as bad. Both of their crowns are sort of injured.

We don't know what to do. Please help!

Here are some photos of the sick hens:
the first 3 photos are of hen1 and the rest are hen2
 

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I would definitely insolate the sick or not acting quite right and call o vet for blood work to be done. You need to clean and disinfect everything and hope it doesn't spread any further. Do not put back together until well or just call them to protect flock. You will also need to clean and disinfect the sick pen. I hope this helps, I'm sorry for your troubles!
 
They are in an approximately 12x10 ft dirt floor coop with access to a similar sized run. We have six red ones including “hen1 and hen2”, two white ones (three including our rooster), and one black and one brown one with black tipped feathers. I don’t know the breeds because we forgot, but we think that the red ones might be Rhode Island reds, but we don’t know.
 
I'm sorry that you are having troubles.

Can you take some fresh samples of poop to your vet for testing?

The hen pictured below - does she have a discharge from her eyes? Can you give us a couple of photos of the eyes in the sick hens?
upload_2018-3-30_15-28-56.png



It's hard to know the order of photos - is this the same hen with the poopy butt too?
I would wash her up well, check the vent for a discharge, check her for lice/mites and make sure her crop is emptying overnight.

How old were the chicks that you recently added? Are all the chickens that are sick your "old flock" or are they the "new chicks"? Some of the symptoms you describe - getting stuck, walking around aimlessly, isolating themselves, etc. unfortunately sounds like Marek's.

Changes in flock dynamics (adding new birds, rooster, space, etc) can be stressful to birds. Stress sometimes allow illness to affect a flock.

See that everyone is eating/drinking very well. For the one that is attacked, check her for wounds and treat those. Poultry vitamins that contain B vitamin added to the feed or water for a few days, then once a week won't hurt. Extra protein like egg, tuna or meat may also give them a boost. None of this will cure them if they have disease, but building them up nutritionally and offering supportive care is your goal until you can figure out what's going on.

Texas has a good state lab system - so it would be a good idea if you lose another to refrigerate the body and send it for necropsy. You may want to give them a call, some state labs accept samples for testing and can do fecal testing as well. https://tvmdl.tamu.edu/
 
All the chickens with the sickness are the new ones, and they have been in the coop for about 6-7 months, so they are pretty acclimated with the coop and other chickens.

We just got back from the feed store where they gave us something called tetracylcine and they told us to put one teaspoon in every gallon of water we give the sick chickens. We are also thinking of treating the whole flock just in case. Would that be a good idea?

I also just remembered that when the chickens were pullets, they got bubbly eyes, and we didn't know what it was. One got so bad that it's eye got plastered over with dirt. My mom had recently had something eye related I don't remember what, but she had eye drop medicine, so we gave the pullets the eye drop medicine (through the eye) and they all recovered, or so we thought. The symptoms went away and nothing more came of it.

We examined hen1 and she definitely has some sort of red bugs crawling all over her skin. I think it might be mites. Her eyes do have some water coming out of it for sure also.
 

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We washed up hen2, and completely dis contaminated all of the perches and nesting boxes with soap and water. We replaced the shavings on the floor and in the nesting boxes. We washed out the feeder and the waterer. We placed both the hens in the chickery, one in a dog crate so they are with each other, but they can't get at each other. We gave them some water with tetracycline.

We have plans to tomorrow spray the hens with a garlic juice mixture we found on the web and spray the coop with an oil water mixture. The garlic juice is supposed to have a 100% mite kill rate. We found these mixtures here:
https://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/02/mites-how-to-prevent-them-and-treat.html

We will see if they work! :)
 
We just got back from the feed store where they gave us something called tetracylcine and they told us to put one teaspoon in every gallon of water we give the sick chickens.
when the chickens were pullets, they got bubbly eyes, and we didn't know what it was. One got so bad that it's eye got plastered over with dirt. My mom had
We examined hen1 and she definitely has some sort of red bugs crawling all over her skin.
We have plans to tomorrow spray the hens with a garlic juice mixture we found on the web and spray the coop with an oil water mixture.

Only treat the birds that are sick and showing symptoms. The bubbly eyes that your chickens had in the beginning sounds like a respiratory illness - could be Mycoplasma or Infectious Bronchitis, but without testing, there is no way to know for sure. Chickens that have respiratory illness and those exposed are considered carriers. Sometimes they do become symptomatic/relapse during times of stress, when they come into lay, during molting, etc. - here's more info on illnesses: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

The Duramycin-10 is Tetracycline Hydrocloride but you will want to give them the proper dosage if you are going to treating them. Dosage is 1.5Tablespoons per gallon of water given 7-14days. This should be the only source of drinking water for the sick chickens. (see links below)

The eyes look to have a discharge - general care for those is to flush with saline, remove any dirt and pus, then apply an ophthalmic ointment like Terramycin or similar. I'm not sure what your mom had, but that may be suitable as well.

I am all for using natural and holistic forms of treatment/preventatives but if you are seeing an active infestation of external parasites - it is best to treat your flock and their housing with a Permethrin based poultry dust or spray. You can find these at most feed stores. Repeat treatment and clean the housing again in 10-14days or per product labeling. The garlic may be good to use for future maintenance after you have the infestation under control.

Keep us posted.

Duramycin dosing https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/oxytetracyline-and-tetracycline-powder-doses.1022878/
https://www.drugs.com/vet/duramycin-10.html

Poultry Dusts and Sprays http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1151513/pesticides-approved-for-poultry
 

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