tumours in chickens

[jn21v3]

In may 2010 I bought 6 chicks at 10 weeks old. 2 welsummers one cock. 2 p0lish one turned out to be a cock, one black rock, one cream legbar,

my welsummer hen was about 24 weeks and she looked ready to lay her first egg = I could feel it = but it never came. egg bound I decided . I bathed it and sill no move. after a week i sought help and discovered that the 'egg' was growing apparently it was a tumour. it got larger and larger. my supplier took it back and asssured me it was a one off. meanwhile the cock wellsummer went off his food and stopped crowing finally despite best efforts and nutri drops he died. Again I'm assured it was a one-off how unlucky can you get. ther was no sign of sickness in the rest of my little flock and no sign of outside influences like poison anwhere in my yard. But i was worrried. then my polish cock, a beautifol bbird with a great temperament stopped crowing. I tried nutri drops, cat food and everything else I could but then he developed a tilted head! it was getting worse. I contacted my supplier who was concerned and as clueless as me. finally I took him to a specialist avian vet who took him in for a few days gave anti biotics, tube fed him and gave lots of tlc. no improvement so he advised we put him down and so it ws done, later he asked permission to autopsy I agreeed. he foind a golf-ball sized tumour on his intestine and smaller ones lower in the abdomen and discharge in the brain which he said indicated a brain tumor too.

in summary 6 chickens %50 dead in about 9 months 2 of them with tumours one confirmed, and one suspected at least by me. Has any one else had a similar experience? of can you offer an explaination?

I;m confused . my problems anre not environmental as far as I can determin. unless there was fall out near the breeders location = HELP!

 

[Miss Lydia]

wow that is strange. so sorry you had such a bad experience starting off with chickens.. I hope you'll try again and maybe try a different supplier..

 

[cazz]

We have had a similar experience, reseasonably new to chickens, we bought five warrens, two of them always seemed a bit miserable to the others,i didnt know if they had been wormed so i bought some Verm x, because you dont have to sacrifice any eggs that you might have, they all ate well, rushed to the gate when you appeared ready for treats etc, one of the two miserable ones started to sit in the corner, tail down etc. It was suggested to me that she might have Coccidiosis, so we bought Coxoid and gave them a course of that, sacrficing any eggs that we might have ,i feed her by hand to make sure she was eating well, she was so thin, just skin and bone, her eyes started closing and she would sleep quite a bit, the next day they ran to the gate for the morning food and she laid down at the side of me and died.
The other miserable one always had poo down her feathers at the rear, it got worse, a pasted bottom,which i washed and her lower feathers fell out revealing that she was quite swollen, not having many eggs we wondered if she was egg bound, she was much heavier than the other three birds,researching the problem on line we bathed her and put vaseline on her vent, she seemed bright enough, ate well, but never sat to try and lay an egg, the swelling was getting worse,we took her to our vet, she didnt know much about chickens, but she also throught she was egg bound, giving her a calcium injection to get things moving, someone told us of a good poultry vet, desperate to help her, we took her 20 miles to this excellent vet, who diagnosed her as having a tumour, a very large one at that, so we lost her too. We are getting the remaining three chickens health checked out before we buy any more.
We purchased a new coop to house the chickens and my husband built them a run, they have fresh food and clean water every day, bringing the food in every night so not to encourage vermin, i remove all the poo inside the house every day, clean bedding etc. These problems must have been with the chickens at the time of purchase so have come from the supplier. I hope the remaining three chickens remain in good health

 

[jn21v3]

My chicken tumour story is so like yours mine came from a well respected supplier breeder but not too far from a neuclEar power station I'm very wary of that place now..

 

[jn21v3]

Cazz where is your supplier?