What's Going On?

brooke072

In the Brooder
Feb 4, 2023
7
29
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Help!

Over the past year, 2 of our chickens have died due to a sickness we can not figure out. 3 or so of our hens are showing the early signs of what happened to the first 2.
What happens is they first start to lose all their feathers in one small place, generally a spot on each wing. Then the spot becomes super red and burnt looking. Over time they start to lose their voice as well and it becomes a whisper/croak. The feathers continue to disappear all over the hens body. They seem to lose a lot of weight in the process and become very bones and small. Although they never act as if something is wrong though and they are perfectly healthy up until the last few days before they die, thats when the hen will sit in the corner and not move, sometimes even vomiting water.

At first we thought it was old age, but the chickens that mainly get it are our 3 year old brown shavers. Although recently our year olds have started showing the first signs of losing feathers on their wings. We have dusted them many times to no improvement. Any ideas what's wrong?

Ps - It was hard to get pictures but the worse looking one is worse than what it looks like.
 

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Over the past year, 2 of our chickens have died due to a sickness we can not figure out. 3 or so of our hens are showing the early signs of what happened to the first 2.

they first start to lose all their feathers in one small place, generally a spot on each wing. Then the spot becomes super red and burnt looking. Over time they start to lose their voice as well and it becomes a whisper/croak. The feathers continue to disappear all over the hens body. They seem to lose a lot of weight in the process and become very bones and small. Although they never act as if something is wrong though and they are perfectly healthy up until the last few days before they die, thats when the hen will sit in the corner and not move, sometimes even vomiting water.

if you mean the standard mites that live on the chickens, yes we have dusted them in smite many times to no improvement.
You mention using Smite, so are you in the UK, NZ or?

Smite is DE (diatomaceous Earth) which is not that effective against a mite or lice infestation. See if you can find Pestene or a Permethrin based poultry dust or spray and treat your birds and their housing.

What do you feed, including treats? Provide your birds with a 16-18% protein feed, limit scratch/treats and see that they are drinking and eating well. Provide them with Oyster Shell (soluble grit) and Grit (insoluble grit/crushed granite) free choice.

Do your hens have issues with laying eggs? They are Brown Shavers which are a high production breed, often a high production breed does not have a long lifespan.
The spitting up of water sounds like a crop problem, but this is often a symptom of an underlying condition - reproductive disorders, worms, infection, etc. If you have vet care, see if you can get a fecal float to rule out worms as part of the problem.
If you lose another bird, then having a necropsy through a state lab, vet college, agricultural ministry, etc. can give you the best information as what's happening with your flock, so if there's a treatment or correction that can be made you can address it.
 
You mention using Smite, so are you in the UK, NZ or?

Smite is DE (diatomaceous Earth) which is not that effective against a mite or lice infestation. See if you can find Pestene or a Permethrin based poultry dust or spray and treat your birds and their housing.

What do you feed, including treats? Provide your birds with a 16-18% protein feed, limit scratch/treats and see that they are drinking and eating well. Provide them with Oyster Shell (soluble grit) and Grit (insoluble grit/crushed granite) free choice.

Do your hens have issues with laying eggs? They are Brown Shavers which are a high production breed, often a high production breed does not have a long lifespan.
The spitting up of water sounds like a crop problem, but this is often a symptom of an underlying condition - reproductive disorders, worms, infection, etc. If you have vet care, see if you can get a fecal float to rule out worms as part of the problem.
If you lose another bird, then having a necropsy through a state lab, vet college, agricultural ministry, etc. can give you the best information as what's happening with your flock, so if there's a treatment or correction that can be made you can address it.
Thank you for this! Yes I am NZ and currently feed them a half 'n' half mix of seed/grain mix and layer pellets & grit with scraps. (no sweets or artificial foods, mainly vege/rice or whole foods) However after researching, we are going to remove the seed/grain and. You mention using two different types of grit? What does the different types do?

We get about 2-5 eggs daily (mainly 2), but that is because some of the chickens are older (still laying but not daily), however we do have a few different age groups and have at least 4 laying daily + the irregulars.

I will definitely try worming treatment next if the different mites and lice doesn't work.

Is there any scraps in particular they shouldn't have? Also, I know your not supposed to give them too much scraps, do u have any idea how much is a good daily average for 12 chickens?
 
Thank you for this! Yes I am NZ and currently feed them a half 'n' half mix of seed/grain mix and layer pellets & grit with scraps. (no sweets or artificial foods, mainly vege/rice or whole foods) However after researching, we are going to remove the seed/grain and. You mention using two different types of grit? What does the different types do?

We get about 2-5 eggs daily (mainly 2), but that is because some of the chickens are older (still laying but not daily), however we do have a few different age groups and have at least 4 laying daily + the irregulars.

I will definitely try worming treatment next if the different mites and lice doesn't work.

Is there any scraps in particular they shouldn't have? Also, I know your not supposed to give them too much scraps, do u have any idea how much is a good daily average for 12 chickens?
You're on the right track, Feed them only the layer feed for a while, if you can get higher protein feed, that will help.
You only want to give them treats once or twice a week, about an equivalent of a spoonful per bird. :]
 
You're on the right track, Feed them only the layer feed for a while, if you can get higher protein feed, that will help.
You only want to give them treats once or twice a week, about an equivalent of a spoonful per bird. :]
Thank you so much! I am currently looking to find the correct mite powder and will see how that goes.
 
It sounds like their diet has been really really low in protein.
Layer is already low protein, some places even less than here. Does it say a percentage on the bag?
I would boost their protein and cut out everything that's not a balanced high protein feed until they are better. 20-24% is a good target.

Scraps and scratch should make up no more than 10% of their diet.
 
Help!

Over the past year, 2 of our chickens have died due to a sickness we can not figure out. 3 or so of our hens are showing the early signs of what happened to the first 2.
What happens is they first start to lose all their feathers in one small place, generally a spot on each wing. Then the spot becomes super red and burnt looking. Over time they start to lose their voice as well and it becomes a whisper/croak. The feathers continue to disappear all over the hens body. They seem to lose a lot of weight in the process and become very bones and small. Although they never act as if something is wrong though and they are perfectly healthy up until the last few days before they die, thats when the hen will sit in the corner and not move, sometimes even vomiting water.

At first we thought it was old age, but the chickens that mainly get it are our 3 year old brown shavers. Although recently our year olds have started showing the first signs of losing feathers on their wings. We have dusted them many times to no improvement. Any ideas what's wrong?

Ps - It was hard to get pictures but the worse looking one is worse than what it looks like.
It looks like it could be some kind of depluming mite or quill mite particularly if you see skin flakes and crustiness. (Chicken skin exposed to sunlight normally turns very red so that doesn't indicate much.) These mites can be a little harder to treat with the usual dusts and sprays since they live under the skin and in the feather shafts so I'd be inclined to treat with topical ivermectin.
 
Thank you for this! Yes I am NZ and currently feed them a half 'n' half mix of seed/grain mix and layer pellets & grit with scraps. (no sweets or artificial foods, mainly vege/rice or whole foods) However after researching, we are going to remove the seed/grain and. You mention using two different types of grit? What does the different types do?

We get about 2-5 eggs daily (mainly 2), but that is because some of the chickens are older (still laying but not daily), however we do have a few different age groups and have at least 4 laying daily + the irregulars.

I will definitely try worming treatment next if the different mites and lice doesn't work.

Is there any scraps in particular they shouldn't have? Also, I know your not supposed to give them too much scraps, do u have any idea how much is a good daily average for 12 chickens?
I'd try the mite powder and see if that helps since DE (Smite) is all that you have been using.

Do you happen to have a rooster too?
Depending on the seed/grain mix, you may want to cut those back a little and increase the amount of pellets they get each day. A laying hen usually needs a minimum of 16% protein daily to maintain her health. I like to feed scraps/sprouts/scratch to mine to I usually try to find a feed that is 18-20% protein, but the 16% is sufficient.

The 2 "grits". I believe in your part of the world there's Oyster Shell or Shell grit (soluble) which is used to supplement calcium. Then there's "Insoluble" grit which is either Flint or Granite, this is used in gizzard to help grind down and process food.

You had mentioned that in the last days of your hen's life, they often just sit and sometimes vomit water. The vomiting of water is a symptom which may be from a blockage in digestive system or it's a symptom that there's inflammation due to reproductive issues or infection. The only way to know is to have a necropsy, either a professional one or an informal one that you do yourself. I suspect that perhaps the Shavers are having some reproductive issues which unfortunately seems all to common in laying hens.

One more question...where do these hens come from? Are you raising them up from chicks or are they sourced as spent hens/battery hens?
 
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