Two dead chicken. HELP!!

[coopdeville08]

I wrote last week about a possible egg bound. well she has recovered all on her own from whatever it was. Today i was out mowing and our wellsummer has dead in the corner. Now our RR is Dead also, all in a matter of hours. They freerange in the pms. is it possible that they are eating something in the yard, and they are all going to pass? Please give me suggestions. Allof my babies are about 16 mnths old. What could it be???

 

[bargain]

Were there any marks on the chickens?

Was there any change in their eating or pooping at all?

Did they have ready access to water/food?

Have they recently come to your home?

Just trying to find out more information.

So sorry for your loss.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

You're in Arlington? Isn't it stinkin' hot and humid there at this time?
Did they all have water? A few hours without water is deadly.
Could they have been bit by a snake? Venomous spider?

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Agreed that in Texas, particularly this year, heat is flat deadly!

Do you have other birds?

I'd also check them thoroughly for mites and lice - it's going around bad this year and that will kill a bird very quickly. Look at night and during the day. Most particularly look all through their feathers under their wings, at the back of their necks, around their vent, warm moist places. Use a flashlight to see better, ruffle their feathers over a white sheet or pillow case (or some light color).

If you find something, treat with permethrins in the coop and on the bird then you can follow up with DE if you want, but it must be treated immediately with something to quick-knock them down.

Otherwise, if you offer electrolytes, be sure to offer both plain water and electrolyte water in the same amount of water that you usually offer just plain.

Use multiple drinking stations so that the birds have more availability of water.

Let us know about how you prevent heat exhaustion and we'll help there.

Also, let us know if it's been rainy up there (dry as heck down here), or if your birds have access to a compost heap, any decaying vegetation, kitchen scraps, maggots (which love moist places), lots of earthworms, etc.

Also, what does their weight feel like? Are their keel bones sharp? Do you worm twice or more a year?

What are you feeding them? Can you answer the questions on the second sticky post in this forum only answer them here please? That way we'll get a more clear picture of your flock history. The more info we have, the better we do at helping you.

I'm very sorry for your losses and do hope we can help.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

Well I hope if coop answers all of our questions, we'll be able to give a decent answer! My head is reeling from that.

 

[coopdeville08]

I have never given them any worming medicine. They have DE in the coop with the shavings and i mix it with the sand. they dust bathe everyday when they are out of the coop. So im not sure about mites but i will try to look for them. I do have a compost pile i see them sratching around the bottom of it but not very often. It is warm here but they are in the shade almost all day. they have three different water stations. Hope i got it all answered

 

[threehorses]

You should fence the compost pile off from them. It can be a source of botulism, as can the bugs that are there to break down the compost.

As for worming, DE is not a wormer. There's some anecdotal evidence that it might help control worms to a certain extent, but it won't prevent worm infestations. So keep that in mind. Also yes - check for lice and mites. You really have to look very carefully.

How about other things? What are they eating, for example? Do they have grit available in a dish (not just environmental)?

Actually, there's a sticky post at the top of the forum. Answering the questions from there into this post would give us a more detailed and accurate flock history which in turn will help us to help you, if you wouldn't mind terribly, please.

 

[uwharrie]

This has me thinking ( I have lost three hens recently and had thought it was Roundup)
what about manure (horse) piles? The chickens love to dig in it since it is full of earthworms.

Quote:

 

[threehorses]

I'd suspect roundup more than I wound manure. We have horses and, because we don't have chickens, we don't have manure piles. But if you have a place where you dump the manure - a true pile rather than the ones the horses leave behind - then yes, this too can be a problem in the deeper areas where water holds and where maggots hatch.

Just a note - if they're eating a lot of earthworms (who can keep a chicken from doing that?) then they're at a higher risk for parasites as earthworms are an intermediate source of a number of problems for chickens.

Rather than worrying unnecessarily about the earthworms, I worm twice yearly with a broad spectrum wormer (ivermectin pour-on) after a one-time initial wormer (in older birds) with Wazine 17 (piperazine 17% solution) in their water. With that program, I've never had worm problems.

You can also use DE (only food grade, never anything garden grade) in their dust baths and some people (including myself at one time) use it in their food (at less than 2% weight per ration). I've given up the DE in the food as I didn't see much difference over a number of years.

 

[uwharrie]

Yes we have a true pile, our paddock is right by the neighbor's house so it gets picked up at least everyother day. The compost (manure) pile is on high ground so no standing water, have never seen maggots there ( but have seen some in a damp area near the barn) are maggots harmful to chickens?

They were getting quite a few earthworms out of the pile, (never would have suspected they would be a problem)

Can you tell me a bit more about your worming protocol? (or direct me to somewhere that spells it out)
thanks

Quote: