What is killing all my chickens?

[Emma_Bruffy]

I had 16 chickens die the same day a few weeks ago. Necroposy said they were healthy when they died and were chased by a dog where they clustered and overheated in the coop. Last week I had a hen that stopped eating and was acting lethargic and sick. She died. Now this 4 week old pullet is looking terrible. I have corid but don't know the dosage or even if it is coccidiosis. Her butt and nose is clear but she's just sitting like this. She's the only one acting this bad. What could be happening. If I should use corid how much is the dosage for 4 week Olds - 6 month Olds- and 3 year olds. I haven't seen any bloody poop but could it still be cocci?

 

[Emma_Bruffy]

She's holding her head up and is more active she even tried flying today

 

[Emma_Bruffy]

She's looking better after her first dose, hope she pulls through. She is louder and moving more and her eyes are brighter so those are good signs. Her wings are still droopy and she has a wobbly balance but she's eating and drinking

 

[Eggcessive]

She looks very ill. Blood only is seen in some cases of coccidiosis. Dosage of Corid is the same for all chickens. Put 2 tsp of the liquid or 1.5 tsp in each gallon of water for 5-7 days. In addition for a chicken this sick, I would give some undiluted Corid orally 1/4 tsp per pound of weight daily. Make aure to encourage her to drink the water. How hot is it in the coop?

 

[MROO]

Should I isolate her or is there no point since if it's coccidiosis the whole flock has it

No! Treat the whole flock. Corid is a relatively benign treatment, It won't hurt birds who don't need it, but will knock out the issue in birds that aren't showing symptoms, yet.

When you treat, start with a straight dose laid directly alongside the beak. They'll open to swallow it on their own. Then add it to their water. Be sure to offer ONLY Corid-treated water. Take out any other water sources. Do NOT supplement with vitamins, as the Corid works by depriving the Coccidia of the B vitamins they need to thrive.

Once the five day treatment is over, remove all of the treated water, replace it with clean, fresh stuff and treat the whole flock with a full-range vitamin supplement - any standard poultry vitamin that contains B should do the trick. The follow-up is important, because what the coccidia aren't the only organisms that need the B vitamins, so do your chickens! The full-range vitamin supplement will boost their systems back up and hopefully keep them from crashing. Add Corid to your emergency kit. Coccidia live in the soil ... pretty much ALL soil - and the strain can vary from yard to yard - so you will most likely need it again at some point. I keep a fresh bottle on hand at all times and replace it as it expires. Better safe than sorry!

Good Luck!

 

[azygous]

It depends on which strain of coccidia of the nine strains that target chickens if blood shows up in poop.

How hot is it where you live? If this four-week old is housed in a hot coop with poor ventilation, that may be what's causing its troubles.

 

[MROO]

Yes I'm treating everybody but wondered if I should keep her separate as she's the worst case and I'm glad you explained the whole vitamin thing because someone told me corid does something with vitamins but didn't tell me what so I was confused. And I'm going to start keeping corid in case this happens again, thank you for explaining it so well

Unless she's so sick that she needs constant supervision and/or is so weak she would benefit from climate control, I'd be inclined to leave her with her flock. I almost lost a beautiful show pair of D'Uccles to this mess. I ended up bringing them both inside so I could watch them better. That's when I noticed my little rooster crashing post-treatment. I "accidentally" discovered the vitamin trick by giving him a last-ditch, Hail Mary Sav-A-Chik dose. He was noticeably improved within 30 minutes and eventually made a full recovery.

 

[MROO]

Warning- dead chicken

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I don't know it seems like they are just all going to die and it's like they are all dying of different things at once.

First things first ... Clean out your run and coop, dumping the debris far away from your birds. I compost mine around the other side of my detached garage. It makes great garden mulch! Treat your coop and run with a sanitizer. Bleach works fine. Wait until it dries out to put new bedding down. You can put a fan out there to speed things up.

If there is bedding in your run, take that out, too. Spread mite/parasite dust in both areas. Be sure to get your roosts, nesting boxes, cracks and crevices. Clean your feeders and waterers - again, use bleach.

I use a short snow shovel to clean out my coop, pushing it right out the door into a waiting wheel barrow or onto a tarp. DS is not happy about my commandeering one of "his" shovels, but it now hangs in my coop, year-round ... MY shovel! If you have a snow blower, you can use that in the corners, but treat the bedding with poultry dust before you blow it all over, or you're just spreading the parasites. I just use an old broom, which also "lives" in the coop.

This sounds like a lot of work, but it really needs to be done at least once, usually twice a year ... and any time you have a mass issue like this. I paint the interior every couple of years, too. It not only looks nice, but it seals anything nasty in and away. If you mix in a 1/4 cup of Lysol before you paint, it helps keep away mold and rot. You can also whitewash as often as you want. There are lots of DIY mixes on BYC.

You can beat this. It's frustrating and disheartening, but it is do-able. It takes some back-bending, some elbow grease and more than a little ingenuity, but it's all part of the learning curve ... and unfortunately, it's also part of having chickens. As my dairy farming sister is overly fond of telling me, "When you have livestock, you sometimes have deadstock." The trick is figuring out why and taking that out of the equation.

Hang in There!

 

[Emma_Bruffy]

First things first ... Clean out your run and coop, dumping the debris far away from your birds. I compost mine around the other side of my detached garage. It makes great garden mulch! Treat your coop and run with a sanitizer. Bleach works fine. Wait until it dries out to put new bedding down. You can put a fan out there to speed things up.

If there is bedding in your run, take that out, too. Spread mite/parasite dust in both areas. Be sure to get your roosts, nesting boxes, cracks and crevices. Clean your feeders and waterers - again, use bleach.

I use a short snow shovel to clean out my coop, pushing it right out the door into a waiting wheel barrow or onto a tarp. DS is not happy about my commandeering one of "his" shovels, but it now hangs in my coop, year-round ... MY shovel! If you have a snow blower, you can use that in the corners, but treat the bedding with poultry dust before you blow it all over, or you're just spreading the parasites. I just use an old broom, which also "lives" in the coop.

This sounds like a lot of work, but it really needs to be done at least once, usually twice a year ... and any time you have a mass issue like this. I paint the interior every couple of years, too. It not only looks nice, but it seals anything nasty in and away. If you mix in a 1/4 cup of Lysol before you paint, it helps keep away mold and rot. You can also whitewash as often as you want. There are lots of DIY mixes on BYC.

You can beat this. It's frustrating and disheartening, but it is do-able. It takes some back-bending, some elbow grease and more than a little ingenuity, but it's all part of the learning curve ... and unfortunately, it's also part of having chickens. As my dairy farming sister is overly fond of telling me, "When you have livestock, you sometimes have deadstock." The trick is figuring out why and taking that out of the equation.

Hang in There!

I will start now, I've only had my chickens 4 years and this is the first time I've ever had this many die at once so its kinda shocking to me that it's all happening at once, I love my feather-babies and luckily I have all that stuff I need to begin deep cleaning

 

[Emma_Bruffy]

Update on this: ever since I got rid of the guineas I haven't had any more issues but the sick chick had completely healed only to be killed by my dog . Nobody else has been sick or hurt ever since so let's hope it's finally over.