Two 5 mo old poults died, only commom thing wzs wasting.

[chickdiane10]

So this currently is about 2 of my 5 month old poults that have died and I have a 3rd one inside with a limp. I'll post names and symptoms of each.

Sapphire, sapphire gem. 5 mo
She went down hard around Dec 1st, exactly 1 week after we completed our corid treatment. (I was doing poultry cell in the water after completing that round). I found her on the floor in the coop. Her right leg was not working for her but she was still feisty. Initially thought maybe it was broke. I braced and wrapped it and for a few days she could actually stand for short durations. But then she just went downhill and while she could use her legs to push herself, she couldn't stand anymore. I made her a comfy sling. Day 3 she started gaping breathing. She did that for 10 days. I treated her with amoxicillin 5 days and safeguard 3 days bc I didn't know what it was, respiratory or parasites. She eventually got over the gaping but in that period she got extremely skinny despite my efforts to feed her by beak and I did get her to eat the sick chicken recipe of wet mash, oats, fish oil, vitamins/probiotics, chopped apples ect. Day 14 I noticed tiny little bugs crawling around her eyes and in her feathers. I treated her with 3 drops of ivermectin sheep drench. The next several days she started to have more interest in eating and began pooping more often, what looked like healthy formed poo. But did notice 1 or 2 that the urates had a light yellowish tint.
After about 20 days of TLC and we thought she was turning a corner, Sapphire passed away.

Willow, speckled Sussex 5 mo,
Just passed today 12/29/23.
She started being "sickly" right around Halloween. She sat around more than walked, but ate and drank well. She was intermittently lame for approximately 3 weeks. She'd walk a few steps and sit, still roosted. She started doing remarkably better after a course of corid. (I had found 4 very watery blood poos and treated everyone). So around Thanksgiving she was doing great and walking around all the time again. Then this week I noticed her sleeping a lot while standing up and not eating as much earlier this week. I noticed she was thin, her face that was usually a rosy pink was now very pale along with her tiny comb and wattle. I brought her in and she ate really well the first day, and only intermittently until she passed tonight. She had small brown poos that were watery. I noticed she was drinking a lot of water.

Peach, americauna 5 mo
She came out from the roost limping on one leg, December 19th. I brought her inside and she is holding stable. She eats heartily, normal poo, she stands on her good leg, preens. Only other symptoms are her tail is low but she's also balancing on 1 leg, so dunno if that's why. And occasionally she'll pant, but I'm wondering if the house temp vs what she is used to is bc of that. She is plump and not losing any weight. She stands on good leg with bad foot down but not using and toes curled under.

Vitamins I have, poultry cell, rooster booster, durvet probiotics, and Braggs nutritional yeast. Have oregano oil and ACV but haven't used those daily.

While 2nd chicken was down I was researching hours to put together something. I was suspecting her eating something moldy. Though I never did locate a source, maybe my mulch or the logs we set into the run, or maybe food they've knocked on the ground. But in my research I realized I made an error with how I was storing feed. I had it in a clear pet food bin by my sliding glass window to the back door. Learning light on the food can degrade vit/minerals in the food. I pitched that food and started a new bag. Nobody is laying yet so they are on grower. I have been using new country organics I got at a local feed store since early November. It's a mixed grain but I've been making them daily mash by adding water and I sprinkle some herbs on top in rotation like oregano, garlic powder, red pepper flakes.
I change out water every couple days and add durvet probiotic.
Run substrate is cypress mulch (no colors in it). Run doesn't get pooling water, drains well, I have water spouts diverted.
Coop I use horse pine pellets on the bottom and layer top with pine bedding. I scoop out the wet stuff every day or 2, it never gets bad or stinks in there. 2 gable vents up high.

Besides my horrible error with nutrition and though I have been regularly adding vitamins to water and when I made mash, what else might be taking my poults down? So I don't know if they suffered a vitamin deficiency and allowed in something? We've had 3 bouts of bloody watery poop since Oct 1st which i assume was coccidiosis and it went away after treatments.

Mold makes all 3 make sense. I've definitely pondered Mareks but Willow bounced back from being lame so that's confusing! Willow and Sapphire both became extremely skinny. I was already using a new fresh bag of feed when Willow became slow. Could Willow have suffered coccidiosis damage?

Thanks for reading this and please give any input to help me correct my chicken husbandry.

Last pic is Saphhies last poo.

 

[chickdiane10]

I forgot to add I treated the whole flock and coop with elector psp (I ordered it the day i saw sapphire had bugs on her).

 

[chickdiane10]

This is the coop and run

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I just noticed this. Sorry nobody has responded. Let me tag a couple of people who may be able to help.
@coach723
@oldhenlikesdogs
@azygous

 

[chickdiane10]

Peach passed away.

Now 4th chicken neck tucking and diarhea.

I sent off poo for fecal float of the remaining 5 chickens. It came back with cappilaria and coccidia. I have treated those so I wait and see.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, I see the bloody poop now, often that's a sign of coccidiosis. You are treating all of them, yes? And you probably know that the Corid water should be the only source of water during treatment, and not to give any vitamins during treatment, right?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm sorry for your losses.
@Wyorp Rock, can you help?

 

[chickdiane10]

Yes, I see the bloody poop now, often that's a sign of coccidiosis. You are treating all of them, yes? And you probably know that the Corid water should be the only source of water during treatment, and not to give any vitamins during treatment, right?

Correct, no vitamins during treatment. I understand that corid blocks thiamine. We did start vitamins after treatment to get them back up.

This current coccidia outbreak only symptoms were green runny poop in one chicken, puffed up, neck tucked. So I sent off their poo to be floated and it came back coccidia and cappilaria which both were treated. (Corid first), completed that, waited several days and treated with Valbazen for cappilaria (friday).

My ill chicken is still neck tucking. She does eat and drink and not skinny, but not as heavy as she used to be. She's been off I want to say about 3 weeks-month. I have been doing courses of vitamins (poultry cell in the water for about few days at a time, then give a break of just plain water). (No vitamins used the same time as corrid). I've added probiotics to a morning mash. I'll sprinkle oregano, cinnamon, garlic, tumeric/black pepper on too. I feed new country organics layer feed. All but my sick girl are laying eggs and are between 7 and 9 mo old. We got our first egg January 18th, and 4th chicken just began laying about 2 weeks ago.

I suppose at this point I'm trying to figure out why the chickens immune systems are so weak. I've researched so much. It's a possibility we may be facing ALV or mereks, which i will need to send samples of for labs to confirm.

I keep their coop and run cleaned. Check for mites (have elector psp on hand for those).

My bantam cochins shake their heads more than my big girls. But other than that only symptoms I have in any is with my Delaware. Runny greenish droppings in the morning under her roost, neck tucking for a minute or two several times a day. It's like she will briefly meditate. Then she goes back to eating, digging, foraging, preening, dust bathing. Maybe she just needs time to get over the parasites we've treated? She will get another dose of wormer in 10 days.

 

[Eggcessive]

I am sorry for your losses. To me, I think Mareks disease may be an issue. It lowers the immunity, making them prone to common diseases. In what state are you located? The best way to get a diagnosis is to have your state vet lab perform a necropsy and testing for Mareks. Here is a list of them to contact:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[coach723]

Another thought is bacterial secondary infection from the coccidia and or capillary worms. They can sometimes badly disrupt the gut bacteria, allowing the bad bacteria to take over. E coli and clostridium are common and they can develop necrotic enteritis. So a round of antibiotics might be needed. I've had secondary bacterial issues with roundworm infection, if they don't bounce back after worming I usually try amoxicillin first (if you have none on hand you may not be able to get it right now due to shortages- it's available as a fish medication without prescription). Your vet that did the fecal could also check for bacteria. Without amoxicillin I would try SMZ-TMP instead, you can get that here without prescription: https://www.medi-vet.com/Bird-Sulfa-Sulfamethoxazole-Trimethoprim-480mg-p/19328.htm
Worth a shot anyway, to see if it helps.
Following the antibiotic I would give a good probiotic for a couple of weeks, to help the gut get back in good balance again.
If you lose this one, then I would also highly recommend necropsy, so that you know exactly what is going on with them, especially since you've lost several.