Various Species Dying, Sporadically!

[Hengland]

Long story, so I'll try to shorten it. I have hatched several hundred chicks, peafowls, quail, pheasants, turkey, and guinea keets this spring. All WAS well. I had no problem with any of my babies and was doing great with everything until the last few weeks. About three weeks ago I purchased 50, three day old quail from a very nice gentleman that lives up the road. I was ecstatic that I hadn't lost but one at the end of the first week. I though I was home free. I have them in my brooder house where I have several different pens with wire bottoms set up. I literally built these pens the day before I purchased these babies. After having them a week or so I lost a couple. I didn't think too much about it, it was just two right?

A few days later my guinea keets and chickens started dropping like flies. Everyone seems to be fine and have no ailments, and when I check then in the mornings I will find dead ones. There is no draft and this is effecting several different species between the ages of 2 and 6 weeks. I have found blood in the stool of the chickens age 2 weeks that were dying, and I assumed it was coccidiosis. I started Corid in all cages, but I continued to have loses.Since then I have tried tetracycline and am using a 28% bactricin feed in all pens. I have around 20 quail left, so I'm at about a 60% or better mortality on those and my chickens and guineas are at about 70% mortality. My peacocks, sad to say the ones exposed are 100% mortality and oddly enough I haven't lost any turkeys from this.

I took fecals in to the vet and they came back negative for cocci. Does anyone have any ideas? I am sending a body off for post-mortem, but who knows how long that may take?

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your losses... I'm not sure what diseases can affect so many different species, but not poults. Some things come to mind, like blackhead (histomoniasis) and NE (necrotic enteritis), but I don't really know much about NE, blackhead, yes, lots of experience with that, but you would expect the poults to be affected as well. Since coccidiosis is species specific, I doubt that all of your birds would get it at the same time.

If the necropsy doesn't reveal anything, I would suspect that they are getting too hot and/or too cold, or maybe there's an issue with the feed that the turkeys aren't bothered by.

Regarding the necropsy, most labs will have a preliminary result on the day they receive the bird, so call and ask for it. Of course there are many tests that take time, but many diseases are easily identified when they cut open the bird.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Curiously, what did their poop look like?

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/162/ulcerative-enteritis-quail-disease

-Kathy

 

[Hengland]

Stools looked slightly pink in the beginning and then turning into more of a frank blood appearance. Stools of all that are dying are not always affected. They were firm and not very loose at all.

New Symptom or coincidence? A couple of my quail now have unilateral ankle swelling. My thought is that maybe some of their stools are sticking to their feet and causing the others to pick?

As far as temperature goes. I am positive that should not be a contributing factor, but I guess sometimes you never can be 100% sure.

Witnessed death of Old English Game chick- 1 week 2 days of age. Was fine running around chasing bugs(which brings up another question) this morning at 0730. When I revisited the pen at 1100 this morning I thought it was sleeping. I taped on the cage expecting the usual startled response and instead I barely even got a sluggish node in my direction. The chick was dead in a matter of thirty minutes. Just laid over and died. No jerking, no twisted neck. Its craw was empty. But I have witnessed all of these chicks eat.

Could it be the flies they are eating. I've got fly strips hanging, but we have had the worst summer for flies ever. It is usually 100 F outside and dry, but we have had extreme humidity and a decent amount of precipitation for this time of year. Could it be the flies that they are consuming. They look like regular house flies except for they have a bit of a gold sheen on their heads??? Grasping at straws here.

Thank you for the Coccidiosis information. It didn't even occur to me that I would have to have several strains. Possibility, but highly unlikely. Especially on a wire cage.

 

[ten chicks]

Long story, so I'll try to shorten it. I have hatched several hundred chicks, peafowls, quail, pheasants, turkey, and guinea keets this spring. All WAS well. I had no problem with any of my babies and was doing great with everything until the last few weeks. About three weeks ago I purchased 50, three day old quail from a very nice gentleman that lives up the road. I was ecstatic that I hadn't lost but one at the end of the first week. I though I was home free. I have them in my brooder house where I have several different pens with wire bottoms set up. I literally built these pens the day before I purchased these babies. After having them a week or so I lost a couple. I didn't think too much about it, it was just two right?

A few days later my guinea keets and chickens started dropping like flies. Everyone seems to be fine and have no ailments, and when I check then in the mornings I will find dead ones. There is no draft and this is effecting several different species between the ages of 2 and 6 weeks. I have found blood in the stool of the chickens age 2 weeks that were dying, and I assumed it was coccidiosis. I started Corid in all cages, but I continued to have loses.Since then I have tried tetracycline and am using a 28% bactricin feed in all pens. I have around 20 quail left, so I'm at about a 60% or better mortality on those and my chickens and guineas are at about 70% mortality. My peacocks, sad to say the ones exposed are 100% mortality and oddly enough I haven't lost any turkeys from this.

I took fecals in to the vet and they came back negative for cocci. Does anyone have any ideas? I am sending a body off for post-mortem, but who knows how long that may take?

Strange these are all classic symptoms of Coccidiosis. One possible reason for negative cocci results is,some of the Cocci species are very difficult to diagnose. There are 9 strains and they reside in different parts of body. If vet was only looking for the most common ones like Eimeria tenella or Eimeria necatrix(which are common ones)then you would have a negative test result. I have seen and heard this many times,results come back negative for Cocci,meaning negative for maybe 4 strains,but testing was not done on all 9 strains,so in reality you have a positive for one of they remaining 5 strains. Spread by droppings,but also from your clothes/shoes,hands,feed containers,basically anything and everything you have touched,is spreading cocci parasite.

What i am not completely sure about is if Corid(amprolium)is as effective in quail,peafowls,etc as it is in chickens(there are other coccidiostats to try for these birds). Turkeys seem to be better able to resist Cocci strains.

What dose of Corid have you been using?

 

[casportpony]

Chickens get 9 types, turkeys get 7, peafowl, keets and quail all get their own types, so I seriously doubt that they died from cocci, it's much more likely that they died from something common to all species, like NE.

 

[ten chicks]

Chickens get 9 types, turkeys get 7, peafowl, keets and quail all get their own types, so I seriously doubt that they died from cocci, it's much more likely that they died from something common to all species, like NE.

That was my original thought as well,but on further research i found out that once a bird has been exposed to Eimeria,they remain susceptible to infection from all the other species. Even though chickens,quail,peafowl all have their own strain,it is still the genus Eimeria. Apparently cocci is less common in turkeys,above post mentioned that turkeys were fine,i began to suspect Coccidiosis. I agree it is a long shot,but was the only common denominator that i could find.

 

[Hengland]

I have been treating with 9.6% Corid. 10ML per Gallon. And as far as the NE goes is there a treatment?

By the way, the little ones that I have kept in the washroom of the house seem to be thriving. I've noticed that it seems to affect the chickens at an earlier age. Within 5 to 6 days. The ones in the house are two weeks old and they are doing good. No loses.