Sudden Chicken Death Syndrome?

[scoopi321]

have you wormed your chickens? I have had chickens my whole life but never wormed them or never heard of it being done, but I went to the farm supply and bought some wormer for them.
I started out with 12 chiks from tractor supply and all but one died, so after they reached 3 months was when I wormed them. of course im in Alabama, but moved here from fla, 3 yrs ago. didn't have to worm them there. but i did bought 10 more from another source and all but 1 died, so now i have 2 left. im trying to incubate eggs to get more hens. ill let you know if that works out.

 

[LORILEI]

I just had one of my three week old chicks do just that. She was fine one minute and dead the next. No symptoms, no signs, just dropped. All of the rest of the chicks seem happy and healthy. It broke my heart. This is my first time raising chicks and I thought maybe I was doing something wrong. I called the store I bought them from and spoke to the owner who has a ton of chickens himself and he told me that it can happen for no reason at all. I have gotten so attached to them, and the one that passed (Bella) was my absolute favorite. She just loved to cuddle with me. :-(

 

[scoopi321]

LORILEI, well I live in Alabama now moved from florida 3 years ago, had chickens my whole life, never lost one to just falling dead. never wormed them til I moved here. I started out with 10 chicks from tractor supply and after they turned 3 months old they dropped dead 1 at a time. no injuries or sickness, just dead. I managed to bring 1 back, that wasn't dead yet. and I still have her til this day, she likes you to bend down, she will jump on your back, and then your shoulder when you stand up. then I bought 11 more from this guy, and all but 1 dropped dead at 4 months, a month after I bought them. now I have 2 hens left and a rooster, the hens lay every day I want to incubate some eggs and get more hens. good luck to you scoopi321.

 

[liltink90]

So this morning, one of our bantams, the cock (Bully), was happily pottering around with the hen (Cole, we thought she was male as a chick) and chick (Leo). My dad went into the garden and suddenly Bully was dead stiff! He has been fine in himself although, for the past week or two he has had an apparent sore throat. We presumed it was general strain considering he cockadoodledooed every hour! It was just so sad to see he had suddenly died. Anyone have any advice or justification? Thanks!

Nb. He was around 12 months old

 

[KPJUK]

Hi everyone, sorry to make my first post one of a solemn nature -

Upon my return from University my mother and younger brother of twelve had taken to looking after chickens which I secretly love despite my bedroom window being their auditorium.

We had 5 chickens; two Salmon Faverolle's that were sold as a pair and one Cou Cou were the first purchases and then a week later an 8 week old Hy-Line (so cute) and a White Sussex were added to the fold.

Unfortunately tonight I received a text from my brother informing me that the Sussex wasn't standing and would flop to her side rather than sit properly. Upon my return after dinner I found her face down curled up and dead.

It's horrible because he really does become very attached to his chickens, and even I must admit I felt less indifferent than expected lifting this poor thing out of the coop with the others stood round her.

I'm no vet however I did check her over as best I could - there were no obvious signs of physical trauma and she had been fine in temperament. The only noteworthy thing is that earlier that day we discovered an egg yolk in the coop with no signs of a shell.

The Cou Cou is the closest to Point of Lay, followed by the Sussex, then the Faverolle's and finally the dinky Hy-Line. From what this thread has told me, POL is a common time for chicken deaths. I have been out and handled all of the chickens to see if their responses were normal and so far they all seem to be their normal, chirpy selves.

I only post because I wanted to ask if there was something that we could do to help them in terms of hygiene or dietary needs we may have missed. They are all fed a mix of Layers and Growers pellets (to assist the Hy-Line) and kept supplied with plenty of water. Their coop is a plastic unit with two parts to it; one with hay in it and the other has plastic slats that allows waste to drop to trays lined with newspaper. We remove, clean and re-fit these trays every week.

My brother is more upset than he lets on, and I would like to do something to prevent this from happening again!

KP

 

[KPJUK]

Hi everyone, sorry to make my first post one of a solemn nature -

Upon my return from University my mother and younger brother of twelve had taken to looking after chickens which I secretly love despite my bedroom window being their auditorium.

We had 5 chickens; two Salmon Faverolle's that were sold as a pair and one Cou Cou were the first purchases and then a week later an 8 week old Hy-Line (so cute) and a White Sussex were added to the fold.

Unfortunately tonight I received a text from my brother informing me that the Sussex wasn't standing and would flop to her side rather than sit properly. Upon my return after dinner I found her face down curled up and dead.

It's horrible because he really does become very attached to his chickens, and even I must admit I felt less indifferent than expected lifting this poor thing out of the coop with the others stood round her.

I'm no vet however I did check her over as best I could - there were no obvious signs of physical trauma and she had been fine in temperament. The only noteworthy thing is that earlier that day we discovered an egg yolk in the coop with no signs of a shell.

The Cou Cou is the closest to Point of Lay, followed by the Sussex, then the Faverolle's and finally the dinky Hy-Line. From what this thread has told me, POL is a common time for chicken deaths. I have been out and handled all of the chickens to see if their responses were normal and so far they all seem to be their normal, chirpy selves.

I only post because I wanted to ask if there was something that we could do to help them in terms of hygiene or dietary needs we may have missed. They are all fed a mix of Layers and Growers pellets (to assist the Hy-Line) and kept supplied with plenty of water. Their coop is a plastic unit with two parts to it; one with hay in it and the other has plastic slats that allows waste to drop to trays lined with newspaper. We remove, clean and re-fit these trays every week.

My brother is more upset than he lets on, and I would like to do something to prevent this from happening again!

KP

To add to this the following morning, the Cou Cou didn't want to leave the coop earlier. She is out now and behaving normally so far as we can tell, but we can't help but feel it could be something affecting the flock.

KP

 

[scoopi321]

hello, KPJUK, im so sorry for your loss. I have been there. as I have lived in fla. prior to 3 years ago. and I have had chickens my whole life. but when I moved to al. 3 years ago. I started out with 22 hens and lost all --1 each day til I had 2 left. like you said no injurys, just dropped and died. but I did notice a couple kept dropping her wing as if she were going to fall. so I ended up loosing more, I checked around and was told to worm them, never wormed chickens before, but I bought dewormer, and added to their water, and didn't loose anymore, go figure, well this is something you can try. I did start with 12 chicks I bought this time since I moved here were from tractor supply. lost all of them. keep doing what you are, things will get better, I know you cant replace the ones that were close to you, but you can start again, I had too. I hope this might help some.

 

[pigcoon]

Hi all. So from reading the various threads on sudden chicken death, it sounds like there really isn't any explanation. Sometimes these things just happen?

In the past I've dealt with Marek's and that is a much different illness. But I am now joining the ranks of those with a hen suddenly taking ill and dying overnight. She was fine yesterday. The only thing that was odd was that she went to bed in the laying box instead of up on the roosting shelf. This morning she didn't eat food or scraps. Actually she was eating a little dirt. Her abdomen did not feel distended. I came back from a meeting this morning and she was dead. She was a barred rock, one year old. Has been laying all winter, very healthy.

So sad!

 

[Hannah12345]

This is really nice to read that this has happened to others as well. I went outside tonight to close up the coop and I was missing one of my white silkies. I remembered seeing one nestling in the dirt earlier in the day, so I looked outside and saw her still sitting in the same hole she was digging into earlier. As I got closer I saw she was laying on her side with her head bent down towards her chest. I didn't remember any warning signs. She was eating earlier that day (her crop was full) and I believe she layed an egg, although I could be wrong. Anyway, I had brought food out earlier that day (asparagus and an uneaten corn dog) and she was eating just fine. When I examined her body, the only weird thing I could find was there seemed to be some pink skin (maybe a little more than normal? (I am new to chicken health)) coming out of her vent. I couldn't tell if this was normal or not. Silkies have the dark skin, and there was the dark vent, then the pink skin coming out. Looking in "The Chicken Health Handbook" (I didn't read through all the diseases) it seems it would match Sudden Death Syndrome, but that is said to mostly affect broilers. Any thoughts? /img/smilies/sad.png


--Rebekah


Graphic photos:

Sorry about your chicken this morning we went out to check on our chicks (they were about a few days old and sitting under their mom) and they were perfectly fine then this evening we went out to check and the yellow chick wasnt moving, and she wouldnt stand on her own. I picked her up and her head and wings were really droopy and we noticed her vent didnt look quite right so we washed her gently with warm water to cleanse the area and a few minutes later her head was twitching and she just died:, (

 

[aliciasimon]

We lost one of our Buff Orpingtons this week. No sign of trauma of any kind. She even laid a perfect egg that day. She was just laying down and not moving when we checked on the chickens in the late afternoon. The other chickens didn't seem to even notice. Very sad!
We miss Buttercup, our big, grumpy girl