- Nov 9, 2013
- 3
- 0
- 7
I went out to my coop this morning to give the chickens feed and water. I first opened the coop run door to let the chickens out. When I went to go into my coop, two chickens were sitting in the corner and I noticed that one of them looked sickly. Very lethargic and eyes closed. I brought him inside, wrapped him in a towel, and warmed him up as he seemed to be shivering. He seemed to be breathing hard as well, but no audible wheezing. Tried to get him to drink water, but he would not drink. I would say in a matter of 10-15 minutes, he started having a few jerky movements that would make him open his eyes and almost stand up. I placed him down in the bathroom and the jerky movements became more frequent. This movements would cause his legs to extend out, neck stretch, and make him flip over onto his back. Suddenly, I knew it would be the end as his body fully extended, jerking, wings flapping, and then flipping over onto back.
I am thinking sudden death syndrome, but articles I see written on SDS say it is more sudden than what I experienced. All of the meat chickens have seemed otherwise healthy before this happened. I am watching the other chickens to make sure it does not happen in them as well. According to the articles, I am doing this that would increase the risk of SDS in broilers: 1) they are all males, 2) they are provided high-protein pellets, 3) they are allowed free-choice feed. We raised a batch of 20 back in May-July and had no such problems. These chickens are almost 7 weeks old.
Does anyone else have experience with sudden death syndrome? Did you notice sickly birds within 1/2 hour before death? Or could something else may have lead to this bird's unfortunate demise?
I am thinking sudden death syndrome, but articles I see written on SDS say it is more sudden than what I experienced. All of the meat chickens have seemed otherwise healthy before this happened. I am watching the other chickens to make sure it does not happen in them as well. According to the articles, I am doing this that would increase the risk of SDS in broilers: 1) they are all males, 2) they are provided high-protein pellets, 3) they are allowed free-choice feed. We raised a batch of 20 back in May-July and had no such problems. These chickens are almost 7 weeks old.
Does anyone else have experience with sudden death syndrome? Did you notice sickly birds within 1/2 hour before death? Or could something else may have lead to this bird's unfortunate demise?