Two hens died within a week of each other 12 wks old

[happycountryhens]

Ok, so I am concerned. One of my Orpinton hens died last week. She was lethargic for one day, although hanging back from the flock for two days. The next morning she was dead. Started a necropsy. Her crop was full. Couldn't continue.

Another Orpinton hen, 12 weeks old died yesterday. She was fine - eating, drinking and pooping normally. Was keeping up with the flock just fine. Found her dead in the morning.

This was a group of chicks from TSC. Raised in a bin indoors and then moved to a new coop 10 days ago. We also have ameraucanas (10 weeks old) that were raised in a seperate bin and reside in an older coop. They are fine. Then we have a year old hen with 3 chicks that are 4 weeks old. They reside in the older coop with the ameraucanas in a seperate brooder area.

The Orpingtons free range as does the broodie and chicks. They go out at seperate times, but free range the same areas.

Did a necropsy on the second dead hen. She had a few white spots on her liver and what looked like a cyst(?) on her liver. The Proventiculus was thick and hard and lumpy. There was very little room inside for food. She did have digesta in her intestinal tract which looked normal to me. Everything else looked fine.

There was no change in feed. All chicks were raised on medicated chick starter feed. The Orpintons and Ameraucanas have started on grower about a month ago. The chicks are still on the medicated starter. The year old bird is on layer pellets and I am sure she steals some medicated starter feed too.

I have 25 chicks in the bin now that are two weeks old. They have been vaccinated for Merek's and are on medicated starter feed.

That's all the info I can think of. Not sure if this fits in with Merek's disease or is just bad luck. (Only one hen still alive the others are roos).

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Happy Country Hens

 

[Judy]

I don't know -- but with the lesions on the liver I'd hope it was that something was wrong with them, and the rest will be OK.

 

[happycountryhens]

Quote:
Thank you for your reply and I hope so too. Anyone else have an idea?

 

[happycountryhens]

Anyone??

 

[klf73]

I recently got birds that were vaccinated with Mareks and am now being told the vaccinated chicks could have given Mareks to my unvaccinated birds. I did not know anything about it and didn't even know the vaccinated ones were vaccinated until they were on my property. I am waiting for an answer back from my state vet, will let you know what he tells me.(I have lost/am losing 7 birds now) sorry for your loss

someone also told me most stores don't have their chicks vaccinated to save them money...so I don't know if that's true

if it's all true then I'm in big trouble

 

[happycountryhens]

Quote:
Krista, I was reading about your chickens on the other thread. Very informative. Thanks for keeping me in the loop from your state vet. My new chicks are in the house in a brooder bin and I just got them last week.
However, that does raise a new concern about the surviving chickens....will they get Mareks from the chicks?? If the Orpingtons have Mareks and have advanced cancer due to that, they were probably exposed a while ago.
That would probably mean that wild birds spread it to my yard. Could be since a lot of people in my area keep chickens. There are four large (40 plus) flocks within a mile of my house that I know of.

The interesting thing is that neither chicken had a paralysis signs. You'd think one would. And it was sudden death in both cases. Unless it is a different strain of Mareks.
This is what keeps me up at night. I also was going to try to get some Del/frizzle crosses, but probably not a good idea now until I know what's going on in my flock.

Thanks for the hugs.

Happy Country Hens

Edited to add: Hugs to you too.