Sudden illness or death in pullets - Madagascan periwinkle poisoning?

[LeaPea]

Hi All, 3 weeks ago I came home from a weekend away to find one of my Orpington pullets (26 weeks) dead in the coop. She was in top health (beautiful, big, show-quality bird) and there were no signs of a struggle. This morning, I found her sister in the same position. This chook was also in top health (in fact she dug up my veggie patch only yesterday!). After some inspection of the area in which they free-range, I found a small, half-eaten Madagascan periwinkle plant. It must have seeded from a potted plant on the balcony above. Just wondering if anyone has had experience with vinca poisoning or if there are any other common causes of sudden death/illness in otherwise healthy birds.

I have the sick girl (Waffle) indoors ATM and have been dipping her beak in water every couple of hours. She is very sleepy and can't stand or eat, but her poop last night was normal. No blood, no diarrhea, no vomit, no trauma, no loss of feathers, no scale, recently wormed.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about your chicken. Sometimes flushes are used if a toxin is suspected. Those include molasses or Epsom salts flushes. The downside is that if it is not a toxin, then the chick may get diarrhea and dehydration. Vinca apparently is mildly toxic, and it probably would depend on how much was eaten. Here is a link about the flushes used for poisoning:
https://books.google.com/books?id=G...v=onepage&q=poison flush for chickens&f=false

 

[LeaPea]

Sorry about your chicken. Sometimes flushes are used if a toxin is suspected. Those include molasses or Epsom salts flushes. The downside is that if it is not a toxin, then the chick may get diarrhea and dehydration. Vinca apparently is mildly toxic, and it probably would depend on how much was eaten. Here is a link about the flushes used for poisoning:
https://books.google.com/books?id=GxoH_NRDxe8C&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=poison+flush+for+chickens&source=bl&ots=0V9eYITg1j&sig=ACfU3U1oa-lZrCjJchUQiJ8wL6_Rez-DCw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-yYa__r_pAhUbVs0KHVm4AYwQ6AEwC3oECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=poison flush for chickens&f=false

Thanks for the advice. Sadly, she didn't make it through the night

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. Is there any poultry lab in your area who could perform a necropsy? Besides the possibility of the poisonous plant, I would also look for any dead animal/fish remains, access to compost beds, or mold in feed which could also cause botulism or mold poisoning.

 

[LeaPea]

Sorry for your loss. Is there any poultry lab in your area who could perform a necropsy? Besides the possibility of the poisonous plant, I would also look for any dead animal/fish remains, access to compost beds, or mold in feed which could also cause botulism or mold poisoning.

Update: I just performed a rough inspection of her cavity and identified a couple of things that seemed 'off': The crop was very full and almost the size of a tennis ball (mostly undigested cracked corn, which I give as a treat (not sure how she got that much in her), the gizzard was rock-hard. Neither were smelly. Also, the ovary was full of yolk even though she wasn't yet laying. Liver seemed ok, aside from a few pale spots. No internal bleeding, tumours or lesions.

Pellets and water were dry and clean, respectively, although we have had rain recently, so she could have eaten something mouldy in the yard. Any idea what might have happened? I'm now down to one chook, but don't want to get any more until I get to the bottom of this.

 

[Eggcessive]

Did the hens have granite poultry grit available for the gizzard to grind up food? She might have had a gizzard impaction which caused the crop to stay full. It is just very hard to say what killed her without a vet or poultry lab. Sorry.