Very expensive birds dying!

[OnlyOrps]

We saved up for a very very long time to buy these birds! Worst of all they were a sweet gift from my husband to celebrate the birth of or first son! This special occasion has been marred by the stress of these beloved birds dropping dead! The breeder I got three from will not help! Please tell me what I can do to save the remaining two roosters!!! I bought ten birds and only two are alive! My 40 other birds from two other breeders are all perfectly healthy! I am so confused! Some have gotten a swollen face/eye, some show no symptoms at all and just die, some sit back on their hocks but still eat and drink then die, some drag a wing or fall over, some survive weeks and improve before they die and some just seem fine then die. I've begged the breeder for help! I don't know what to do! We just had or baby and can't afford to replace them, they were almost $100 each!

I have videos but don't know how to post them thanks so much!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What breed?
Marek's is a possibility.

What state/country are you in?

Losing multiple birds in short order is the time to have lab work and not try guessing.
Losing expensive birds makes that decision even easier.

All states and some countries have poultry labs that will do necropsies either free or at a fair cost. In MO I spent $70 to have a bird euthanized and necropsied. I think it was some of the best money I ever spent on a chicken.

 

[Folly's place]

x2! When you have a diagnosis from a necropsy, you can have a plan. Mary

 

[OnlyOrps]

I called my vet and brought one in, she said coccidia and had me treat with corid and vitamins in water. She didn't suggest a necropsy so I didn't do it... I have two left and they never got sick at all, and 40 other birds from two other sources and they're all just fine. Maybe it's because all my other birds are from local- in state farms and these were shipped?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

All chickens will have coccidia in their gut. A friend of mine was a vet tech and any time they did a fecal, they found it. They treated for it but didn't need tnce they are the age of yours, they're resistant.
Vets are expensive, especially for necropsy. That's why I suggested the state poultry lab.
Likely what killed them came with them.

 

[Cest La Vie]

So sorry you're going through this! Hope you find what's happening to them!

 

[Folly's place]

Your state veterinary path lab (hope you have one) will be your best place for a complete PM exam, with histopath or whatever needs to be done. Here in Michigan it is expensive, because they get no state funding. Your area might have a nicer fee schedule. Mary

 

[MeepBeep]

All chickens will have coccidia in their gut. A friend of mine was a vet tech and any time they did a fecal, they found it. They treated for it but didn't need tnce they are the age of yours, they're resistant.

Better stated they should be resistant to the strains of coccidia that they were exposed to, there are several strains and not all locations have the same strains in the same concentrations... Thus when you bring birds in from a different location (as the OP suggest happened) they might not be resistant to your local dominant coccidia strains and you can have an outbreak in the new birds, and the reverse is true as well as the new birds might have brought a strain your existing birds were not fully resistant to... Then comes the stress and strains of relocation that lowers the chickens immune system...This is why quarantines are important...

To the OP unless the local vet sent the bird out for a full necropsy I would take their diagnosis with a grain of salt, it's all too common for your average vet to diagnose for cocci as a catch all diagnosis in poultry... You really should do what is suggested and send a bird into the state or local authority for a full necropsy...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Good point on the different strains of coccidia exposure to achieve resistance to that strain.
The OP has had these birds a long time though and it won't cause swollen face and eye.
And it is the rare avian vet that knows anything about poultry.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

How long have you had the birds that are dying?