Sudden chicken death, should I administer antibiotic to others?

[jessd05]

Yesterday my 14 hens were out free ranging in the rain. They just turned a year old mid-April. We decided to put them back into their chicken run and we used a small amount of white bread which always works to lure them back in their enclosure. Everything seemed fine, however a few hours later my boyfriend went down to check on them and had found one of the girls had died. He looked over her and found no trauma, wounds or any other injury that would have caused her death. Our experience with owning our own flock of Barred Rocks has only been a year, and we learn something new from the girls every day. My boyfriend is worried it may be a bacteria or a virus and wants to protect the others from this unknown phenomena. He purchased Duramycin-10 and wants to start treating them tomorrow. Does anyone have any advice on whether thats the best thing to do?

 

[Kittymomma]

Antibiotics, especially weak antibiotics, cause more harm then good when used as a preventative. If the rest of your flock seems healthy and are acting normaly it's much more reasonable to assume that your hen had a stroke/heart attack, was startled and ran into the wall and broke her neck, or some other freakish one time event then that they all have something that antibiotics would help. You're more likely to build a resistance so that when they actually need them they won't work then to "cure" something.

If you haven't already disposed of then hen you can call your count agg extension office and find out who in your area does bird necropsy. Many states offer this service for free or at very low cost so if you're worried it's worth looking into.

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

Don't do it! I would highly discourage treating your whole flock with an unneeded antibiotic, aside from being a total shot in the dark, you will be increasing their resistance to the antibiotic, not a good idea.

I'm so sorry you lost your girl, that's never easy. Unfortunately, chickens just die sometimes. It's happened to all of us. It's their nature to hide sickness, it could of been anything honestly, cancer, heart attack, anything. If you're really concerned you might consider contacting a university with a vet program or the state vet, who will oftentimes perform a necropsy for free, then you'll know for sure what happened to your girl.

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

Haha, should of just waited a minute or so before posting, then I would of seen your post Kittymama and all I would of need to have said would of been "Ditto"

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
Happens to me all the time. I type slow and when the kids are home it can take forever from when I start to when I hit submit. Sometimes there are 3-4 posts in front of mine saying the same thing.

 

[Turner]

Every once in a while one will die and you do not have a clue. Looks fine and hours later dies. Chickens are very good at hiding illness or problems (survival state). Sorry for your loss but I would not treat the rest of the hens with antibiotics. Get a necropsy done and find out what happened or carry on - if all look normal.

Your hen could have been egg bound or had some type of cancer or liver disease nothing that would be contagious. Good Luck!

 

[jessd05]

Thank you so much for the advice, I agree with what you said and will put the antibiotics down and slowly back away. Just like people it makes sense to not medicate till there is a diagnosis. After she was found and we looked her over, we were very upset and instinctively went for a shovel to give her a proper goodbye. I never thought to research autopsies for the sake of the other girls. Like I said, we learn from them every day, even the bad days. Thanks again for the direction and condolences.

 

[goldeneggtees]

Sorry about your hen. I had one die too recently. She had just turned 1 and poof, no sign of anything, she up and died. I had my vet (a friend) open her up to see why. She didn't think she'd find anything but she did, it turned out she had a tumor on her liver and it burst and she bled to death internally. Sad, but there seem to be so many things that can get them. It's hard to know what causes their troubles sometimes.