- Jun 9, 2013
- 10
- 5
- 79
Anyone have any thought as to what is going on with my chickens?
I have 7 hens and a rooster that share a coop. The freerange on 4+ acres during the day. All were bought as babies in spring. (3 are olive eggers, 5 are sapphire gems)
Saturday morning one hen was dead in the nest box, no visible trauma, vent clean. I know sometimes it happens so I removed her and let the others out into their run. I usually contain them til noon so the hens lay in the coop and not all over the property.
When I went to let them out the were all lethargic, puffed up and looked terrible. I picked one up and tilted her to check her vent and she threw up a ton of Putrid smelling yellow liquid. She was barely moving at that point and died later that evening. I put a heat lamp in their coop and went ahead and put Corid in the water incase it was coccidia.
Sunday morning I cleaned the coop. Lost another hen that day.
One hen looks fine, all others have inflated crops and I massaged them all and made them throw up the contents. All are smelly and yellow. Everyone I have talked to said it would be rare for all of them to have sour crop and for them to die from it so fast. One more died Monday and the rooster and another hen today (they had been very sick for the last 2 days and I’m surprised they made it this long.
The are not coughing or sneezing, no watery eyes. Just lethargic, not eating, and the smelly crop.
I have 2 other chickens and ducks that live in a seperate coop. They are all fine. They freerange too, but stay in their seperate groups. They eat flock feed because of the ducks, and not the layer feed that I was feeding the sick birds.
1- their small yard they stay in for a few hours in the mornings was somewhat muddy from several days of rain, but not terrible
2- I bought a new bag of layer feed about 2 days before this. It looks and smells fine but ??? (I’m throwing the rest out)
3- they free range and could have eaten something to cause this.
The remaining 3 look better, one hasn’t really acted sick all along and has not had the inflated crop issue. The other 2 look better today than yesterday. I started dosing yesterday with metronidazole for yeast incase it is sour crop (I don’t know if it’s frowned upon, but several homesteading bogs said they used it with huge success and I figured I had nothing to loose ). Any thoughts would be appreciated. Photo of the 3 girls I have left.
I have 7 hens and a rooster that share a coop. The freerange on 4+ acres during the day. All were bought as babies in spring. (3 are olive eggers, 5 are sapphire gems)
Saturday morning one hen was dead in the nest box, no visible trauma, vent clean. I know sometimes it happens so I removed her and let the others out into their run. I usually contain them til noon so the hens lay in the coop and not all over the property.
When I went to let them out the were all lethargic, puffed up and looked terrible. I picked one up and tilted her to check her vent and she threw up a ton of Putrid smelling yellow liquid. She was barely moving at that point and died later that evening. I put a heat lamp in their coop and went ahead and put Corid in the water incase it was coccidia.
Sunday morning I cleaned the coop. Lost another hen that day.
One hen looks fine, all others have inflated crops and I massaged them all and made them throw up the contents. All are smelly and yellow. Everyone I have talked to said it would be rare for all of them to have sour crop and for them to die from it so fast. One more died Monday and the rooster and another hen today (they had been very sick for the last 2 days and I’m surprised they made it this long.
The are not coughing or sneezing, no watery eyes. Just lethargic, not eating, and the smelly crop.
I have 2 other chickens and ducks that live in a seperate coop. They are all fine. They freerange too, but stay in their seperate groups. They eat flock feed because of the ducks, and not the layer feed that I was feeding the sick birds.
1- their small yard they stay in for a few hours in the mornings was somewhat muddy from several days of rain, but not terrible
2- I bought a new bag of layer feed about 2 days before this. It looks and smells fine but ??? (I’m throwing the rest out)
3- they free range and could have eaten something to cause this.
The remaining 3 look better, one hasn’t really acted sick all along and has not had the inflated crop issue. The other 2 look better today than yesterday. I started dosing yesterday with metronidazole for yeast incase it is sour crop (I don’t know if it’s frowned upon, but several homesteading bogs said they used it with huge success and I figured I had nothing to loose ). Any thoughts would be appreciated. Photo of the 3 girls I have left.
