Sudden onset death in 2 roosters

Fencingag

Hatching
Oct 1, 2020
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Over the last 2 days, we have had 2 rooster deaths in our flock.

The first was yesterday - a 2 year old silkie roo, who seemed fine in the morning was found dead yesterday afternoon. When examining the body, we didn't really find any marks, or anything that seemed to be wrong with him.

This morning, our 2.5 year alpha roo, a swedish flower hen, died right in front of my girlfriend. She said he spasmed, looked like he had a hard time breathing, and died right in front of her. when she examined him, she found a whole lot of mucus in his mouth, and throat, leading us to believe it was an upper respiratory infection of some type. He had been looking 'scraggly' for the last 2 days and so she had started dosing the entire flock (about 65 birds) with antibiotics, in order to curb any effects. We did not notice if he had diarrhea, or anything. GF said that she didn't notice his weight to be off, but she couldn't be certain.

We've only been keeping chickens a few years, these are all kept in our backyard, they get to free range over about a half an acre or so. They bed down in chicken tractors and get fresh food and water every day. We had a little issue with fowl pox, but nothing major that wasn't taken care of early over a year ago. They are secure from predators, after we had an issue with a Great Horned Owl poaching birds in the middle of the night.

If it makes a difference, we live in SW Louisiana, right outside of Lake Charles, and the temperatures have just now started turning a little cooler - 60's vs. 80's in the last 2-3 days. We also just got through Hurricane Laura in the last month, and I am sure that all the demolition and construction, etc., has stirred stuff up in the air.

We have not noticed any other odd type of behavior from the chickens, that we are aware of, but as stated before, we are fairly new to this.

Any ideas on what this could be? Obviously, we would really like to save the rest of the flock if at all possible, these are my girlfriend's pride and joy - she loves her chickens, and she has just lost 2 of her favorites less than 24 hours apart.

Thank you in advance.
 
Bummer .any sewlling around the eyes ?Discharge from the eyes ? With out a neocrospy there is only guessing .Sorry, old feller told me a while back to add 1 tablespoon of bleach to a gallon of water .Give them that for 3 days .Then Follow up with a good antibiotic. Treatment for a week to ten days .I use 1cc tylan 50 orally. I tube feed it .Some respond some don't .When it comes to treating chickens ,I most of the time lose .I found the best way to overcome a loss is having way more than I need .
 

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