unknown sickness in my chicks

[Shadow920]

i have some sebright japanese bantam mixed chicks. i started with ten and lost two to a snake and one got trampled by its mother. but i also had two others who had a strange sickness that killed them really slow. at first i thought they had something in their crop but they couldn't breathe or really swallow their food. they would sit and bob there head up and down slowly while opening and closing there beak. the first one a week to die and the second died within two weeks. nobody got sick since but i just wonder if anyone knows what it was and how to cure or prevent it if it happens again.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. I would get a necropsy done by your state vet if I lost another chicken. Sebrights supposedly can be prone to getting Mareks disease, but the head bobbing could be that or a crop problem. You could start some poultry vitamins in the water, just in case of wry neck or a vitamin deficiency.

 

[Shadow920]

thanks for the info. hopefully it won't happen again.