What is killing my chickens?

[BDutch]

My neighbor's dog killed 3 of my best layers in my front yard yesterday.

Sorry for your loss. Did he escape?
What did the neighbour say?

 

[Love Donkeys]

My husband said bring the dead birds to the neighbor. Tell them they can keep them since their dogs liked them so much.

Luckily we live in a very rural area, more livestock than humans. Canine trespassers never leave, just like the song Hotel California.

 

[Scooter1A]

Sorry for your loss. Did he escape?
What did the neighbour say?

Thanks. Nabor is sorry and wants to buy me birds but no thanks. I have enough chicks. Maybe because it's holy week the dog got to go home but next week ain't holy week LOL

 

[Love Donkeys]

Thanks. Nabor is sorry and wants to buy me birds but no thanks. I have enough chicks. Maybe because it's holy week the dog got to go home but next week ain't holy week LOL

Sounds good to me!

 

[McChooky]

My neighbor's dog killed 3 of my best layers in my front yard yesterday.

Can you call animal control? Once the impound fees, court costs and damages exceed a dogs value most dog owners fail to claim them. Sorry for your loss!

 

[McChooky]

My husband said bring the dead birds to the neighbor. Tell them they can keep them since their dogs liked them so much.

Luckily we live in a very rural area, more livestock than humans. Canine trespassers never leave, just like the song Hotel California.

We trap and surrender dogs to the county or put them up in our own dog kennels until we're reimbursed for damages or it goes to court.
Its a pain in the butt but we don't have a stray dog problem.

 

[QuackAttackMiniFarm]

The only answers I can find online are for predators and things people feed their chickens, but my question is specifically related to FREE- RANGING chickens and what they will naturally graze on.

Our chickens were all very healthy and thriving. I started free-ranging them daily. After some time, one of them became very lethargic, eventually stopped eating, developed some slight puffiness in her face, and died.

So far, we have lost a total of 5 hens to unidentified sickness. The first was the only one who had puffiness, but they all became suddenly lethargic, stopped eating, had watery poops, and died, some more suddenly than others. I did my best to diagnose and care for them but I am still new at this. I'm not sure if I am accurately checking the crop for emptying. There were no other symptoms. No discharge or anything. Just lethargy and watery poops.

I finally stopped free-ranging them. We lost one more very shortly after, so I also took the precaution of telling my kids to stop feeding them grass (in case it was clogging the crop). It has been several months since we stopped free-ranging and we have not had any losses since then. They are all very happy now, although they really miss being on grass.

My best guess now is that they were eating something poisonous while free-ranging. What kinds of things would a chicken eat in the wild that would kill them? My husband suspects hemlock.

We live in WV.

Would it possibly be mereks? Symptoms sound similar and deaths are random

 

[BDutch]

Would it possibly be mereks? Symptoms sound similar and deaths are random

I think you are right that it could have a disease that infected all chickens, but didn’t kill them all.
The survivors are the strongest ones, probably immune now, and its very well possible they can free range again without getting sick.

@BankFam probably knows for sure if she tries to free range her chickens again.

If another chickens dies with the same symptoms after eating the grass I would probably send her in for a post-mortal investigation/test.

Fyi: Never had Marek in my flock. I don't buy new chicks or pullets to prevent getting this or other latent diseases in my flock. I buy hatchery eggs to maintain my female flock (no roosters allowed unless all neighbours are okay with that).

 

[BankFam]

I think you are right that it could have a disease that infected all chickens, but didn’t kill them all.
The survivors are the strongest ones, probably immune now, and its very well possible they can free range again without getting sick.

@BankFam probably knows for sure if she tries to free range her chickens again.

If another chickens dies with the same symptoms after eating the grass I would probably send her in for a post-mortal investigation/test.

Fyi: Never had Marek in my flock. I don't buy new chicks or pullets to prevent getting this or other latent diseases in my flock. I buy hatchery eggs to maintain my female flock (no roosters allowed unless all neighbours are okay with that).

I believe they were vaccinated against it, but I suppose, as with vaccines for people, that it is still possible they could contract it. I figured that it would have wiped out the flock though with what a bad job we did quarantining and everything. We aren't set up very well for all that yet. And they were dropping pretty quick for a while. Then we just lost one more after keeping them locked up and the only other change we made was instructing the kids not to give them grass anymore.

Also, the first chicken to die was our strongest, most dominant one...which makes sense if she was pushing her way in front to get all the grass the kids were feeding them. And one of the chickens we have left has always been the runt. She was such a puny little chick, the seller offered us a refund. But we snuggled her and hand-fed her and she is doing great! She's one of our favorites. (Her comb is still smaller than everyone else's and her little eggs are so cute!)

ANYWAY!
I allowed them in our fenced in garden for a couple days (nothing planted yet) and they had a fabulous time being on greenery again. That was a couple weeks ago and no bad symptoms. So nothing in there has hurt them.

 

[Chickenclaude]

Unintentional deaths. Using poison to control rodents and other animals eat the carcasses that they find wondering disoriented.
I have hydrangeas daffodils and hundreds of plantings and my girls don’t eat them. I mean, they might dig up the damn things looking for insects but that’s all.
My husbands been caring for my chickens while I recover from a broken ankle and we found one of our girls in the pen without any apparent problem. Started counting, Then I realized that she was 9 years old. Old age.
Perhaps they got into trash or another animals food?