Whole Flock — Dead! No Blood, Some Still Suffering; Could It Be Poison

[Uppity Peon]

I think you should consider a necropsy. It may be a toxic plant or something and you need to know what it is to get rid of it. Red algae is toxic and could suddenly bloom in the water when the temperature is right.

The two big hens, Lincoln and Copper Penny, were wandering around yesterday in the rain. I looked over and saw them, thought they looked funny

How do you mean funny?

It must be awful to deal with. I'm sorry for your loss.​

 

[vnploveschickens]

I'm so sorry for your losses. Please let us keep us updated.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

DOG !! slobber will draw flies. Seems like several of the poor things were in shock (panting) and/or had their necks broken. Typical DOG kills...have seen enough of them myself.

One time 2 dogs got in my hen house and killed every chicken except the few that managed to escape by flying down to the pond. Was a massacre.

Doesn't sound like poisoning at all.

Sorry for your losses. Maybe you will find some of them still hiding in the weeds. I hope you keep your dog put up or get the one that did this.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I also believe it was a dog attack. Dirty water can make birds ill, but they wouldn't have dropped like they did. The dead birds, the survivors, it all sounds like a dog attack.

Many times dog attacks are not for food, but for fun. It's not malicious, many times it's play. They grab and shake the birds, once the birds "done playing", the dog will grab another. Those that aren't shaken to death, are chased into shock and the heat helps make them exausted.

I'm sorry.

-Kim

 

[htollvr]

Hi, everybody.

Thanks so much for your replies. The chickens were more like pets than anything. One, in particular, was my five-year-old's favorite. When I lost my two favorites, it hurt. When I saw Snowball, it was like being in a movie or something. Surreal. Just awful.

The reason I don't think it's the dog is because he's an 85-pound chocolate lab and could not have gotten into the chicken house. One of the ones that died was in the fenced area next to the house. He never could have gotten in there. Plus, all of the chicks died in a very short period of time. He spends most of his time in the house with me and the girls. Once I realized they were all dead, I knew it couldn't be the dog.

It wasn't over 100. We live in Pennsylvania, and we haven't had our temps hit 90 yet. It's also been rainy and cooler most of the time. The last couple of weeks, except for the last few days, were in the 70s.

I am still really thinking about the water. I was using a large plastic self-feeder than smelled funny when I first bought it, a real chemical smell. I cleaned it out well and watered the girls, and within a week, the water smelled foul. Not foul like bacteria and decay, but like something else. I don't know what corn smells like when it decays, but it's still an organic material. This didn't / doesn't smell like that. Even when I cleaned out the waterer again, it still had tee same smell. Just not as strong.

I don't know how many times I've cleaned it, but it was always the same thing. But the chickens seemed healthy, so I allowed myself to continue using it. The weather has been cool, and it's never gotten overly warm in the house, even when it was in the 80s, so I've allowed it to get down to within a few inches of being empty.

But when I checked it out last night, the smell inside is so strong that I couldn't breathe it myself. Not like organic decay, but a smell so strong and so strange I can't explain it. Like Draino.

Again, it's been like this from the beginning, even when the chicks were small. I have never had chickens, I've never used self-waterers, and while it seemed really strange to me, the chickens seemed to be doing fine. Happy. Growing. Not showing any signs of distress. So I figured it must be a weird chicken thing.

Has anyone heard of chemicals from self-feeders leaching into water and causing the water to go bad? Or will young chicken feed / corn in the water for a week cause such an intense smell? I have this deep fear that perhaps I poisoned my own chickens by not changing their water as often as I should. I had a 3.5 gallon plastic self feeder that I'd allow to get down to within 2-3 inches before I changed it.

Please be gentle on me. I've spent last night and now this morning crying over it.

 

[babyriver]

Might not have been your dog.It could have been a fox. I had one kill a few of my hens

 

[htollvr]

Will a fox kill during the day? My two favorites, Lincoln and Copper Penny, were walking around by the house in the morning. By afternoon, Cooper Penny was dead in front of the house and Lincoln was suffering in the weeds. Early afternoon. I am home all the time (I work from a home office), often with the windows and doors open, and if there were a fox ravishing the hen house, I would have heard something. I never heard anything.

 

[Iowa Roo Mom]

I may be totally off topic here, but has anyone considered the possibility of Marek's? Did you have them vaccinated from the hatchery? Do you have a friend or family member who will do a necropsy for you and look for lesions? (I know I could not do this to my pet chickens) Please keep us updated and let us know what you find out. I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers...


Terrah

 

[CMV]

Botulism? The "floppy" description sounds like something other than a predator. That sounds like a disease or poisoning of some variety. It's the time of year for feeds to be going bad especially if you live in a rainy area and molds are blooming everywhere.

 

[htollvr]

I just looked up Marek's and it's so hard to tell. Would Marek's kill all the birds in the same flock within a 24-hour period? After reading this, I'm thinking of Mullet, one of my girls who died a few weeks ago. She, again, was in the weeds and couldn't walk. That breed is highly excitable, I guess, and they never wanted to be held, so she tried to get away, but she kept flopping to the right. Her head went right and she clearly ahd some kind of nerve damage. That's why I figured she'd been bitten. Her head kept flopping over to the side, too, so I propped it up. Some of the birds who died had their heads flopped over, as if their heads went down first, but not all of them.

No, the chickens weren't vaccinated. But what I read about Marek's sounds like it takes a long time for it to progress. If it were something like this, would they all have died within a 24-hour period?

Where would I get a necropsy done? If it was a disease, would it still be in the chicken house? Is it safe to put new chickens back in there?