What's wrong with my chickens? Please help!

[CountrySunshine]

Several of my hens, and one rooster, have passed away over the past month. They are all around 4 years old, and have never had problems before.

They start with runny, bright yellow poop that sticks to their vents. From there, they begin walking slowly, and not eating or drinking much. A couple got where they wouldn't come out of the coop, and couldn't fly up to their perches at night.

One had an emancipated breast, and her legs seemed really far apart.

The rooster's crop became enlarged & hard. It was about the size of an orange. When he tried to walk, he always went backwards.

They are free range during the day. They share a yard with 3 ducks. There is a kiddie pool for the ducks, a smaller bucket for drinking, plus a regular 1-gallon plastic waterer.

The temperature has been 95-105 degrees over the past month, so the water gets a lot of algae in it. I change it a couple of times a day.

There are ducks & chickens in other parts of the yard, but they don't have access to these sick ones. Yesterday, a 6 week old duckling died over night. It seemed fine when I put it to bed. It lives about 100 yards away from these others.

Any ideas? Please help!

 

[leadwolf1]

search..bright yellow poop. I don't have any advice for you besides that. My only bit of advice would be to have one of your chickens necropsied so that you can find out exactly what is going on.

The rooster sounds like impacted crop. But, with the other deaths and the yellow poop, there is something going way wrong.

 

[leadwolf1]

From just a quick search, sounds like your chickens have an infection of some sort..I would start them on a broad spectrum antibiotic as soon as you can. I will see what else I can find...I don't have much time today.

 

[CountrySunshine]

Thanks, I appreciate your help!

I have some powdered duramyacin. I'll put some in their water now, and see if it helps a bit. Should I treat all of my birds, or just the ones in the "sick" yard?

 

[leadwolf1]

Just the ones in the sick yard. I'm not sure duramycin will be strong enough. I just don't have enough experience with this to really know for sure. If you have some time, seach on here for yellow diarrhea. There were many threads. I just looked through a couple.

Good luck!!

 

[leadwolf1]

Research botulism. My brain says to start there....

 

[dawg53]

Algae is toxic to poultry. Here's a link to alot of good info:
http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page2.htm

 

[RedStarLady1207]

Could be Chlamydiosis or Fowl Cholera. Just a guess - you'd have to see a vet to get a confirmed diagnosis but it doesn't sound good. So many serious symptoms and rapid death. Guessing with antibiotics won't help either. If it is the wrong one it won't do anything as anti-biotics are for infections and won't work on a virus.

You might want to consider improving your biosecurity with the sharing between ducks and chickens not to mention probably wild birds and other critters. An open bucket of water is pretty tempting to anything thirsty in the area and you said it gets algae in it. If you use a scrubby brush and some chlorine bleach to clean it each day that algae would be gone and the bucket would be disinfected. Would go a long way from infection from that source - if that is even the cause. Hard to know really.

 

[CountrySunshine]

Today, I've cleaned the bird house both in and out, and then sprayed it with pyrethrum. I hate to use chemicals, but this seems like a last resort. I've also put antiobiotics in their water. Next step is to scrub the waterers. I usually just use a brush. Today I'll add bleach to that routine.

I'm worried about moving the ducks to another section, as they might be infected also.

A squirrel moved in a few weeks ago. Wonder if it is a carrier of something?

Hard to keep out critters when you live in the country. The big things are easy.... it's the wild birds, snakes & rodents that I have problems with!

Thanks for all of the ideas!