Whole flock gone

[BecksNesting]

I'm fairly new at raising chickens, but my guess is one similar to the person that mention the air quality. They may have died from lack of fresh air movement?

 

[CristaBelle]

Hello. I am looking to see of anyone might have a clue to our mystery. Yesterday evening we went out to the coop to collect eggs and all 12 hens and our 1 rooster were dead in the coop. None of them in the run. They were all on one side of the coop and it was the strangest thing. No indication of a predator. They're all different ages, the oldest being 3 years and the youngest not even a year.

They had stopped laying for several months, so we added in black sunflower oil seeds, all stock sweet feed, and catfish food pellets. Within 2 days they started laying again. This was a little over a week ago. My thought initially is if it were poison, then wouldn't they be scattered through out the run and the coop?..and they all died the same afternoon... any thoughts?

I'm surprised that no one has commented on this yet. FIRST OF ALL, what about this avian flu thing that has been going around? Could it be that? And secondly, when you have an unusual and mass die-off like this, I think one is supposed to call your local agricultural extension office or game and fish office (varies by state) and preserve the bodies if they request SO THEY CAN TEST for a contagious disease. So that would be my recommendation.

 

[NoKFC]

We are in north Texas. The setup is a small leland shed and the run is a chain link dog run covered with chicken wire and the top is a chicken wire roof. They weren't piled up but they definitely were not scattered. To be honest it looks as if someone went in there lined them up and executed them... does that make sense? We checked the perimeter for any holes, or possible ways a predator would have gotten in and didn't find anything. No teeth marks, no blood, and none of them had missing feathers that we could see. We aren't ruling anything out. I was just wondering if anyone had heard of such a thing happening and if it could have been any of the new stuff we added to their feed. It was shocking because they hadn't laid since before the heat of the summer, but 2 days after adding the above to their feed they were back laying again.

I’m so sorry this happened to you. It does sound suspiciously like some kind of poisoning. Only thing I can think of is to have a vet do a necropsy on one of them. This is a big loss for you and I think would be worth getting a vet involved.

 

[NatJ]

I'm surprised that no one has commented on this yet. FIRST OF ALL, what about this avian flu thing that has been going around? Could it be that?

Actually, someone did comment on it, and someone else gave reasons why these particular birds probably did not die of avian influenza:

I honestly haven’t looked too much into this, but could it be the avian flu? Sudden death is one of the “symptoms”. I also found this through google

It is true that HPAI can cause sudden death, but you should have noticed respiratory symptoms and some obviously sick birds before death if the cause was AI. Very highly unlikely they would have ALL died on the same day.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm surprised that no one has commented on this yet. FIRST OF ALL, what about this avian flu thing that has been going around? Could it be that? And secondly, when you have an unusual and mass die-off like this, I think one is supposed to call your local agricultural extension office or game and fish office (varies by state) and preserve the bodies if they request SO THEY CAN TEST for a contagious disease. So that would be my recommendation.

@CristaBelle Welcome back to BYC!

Hopefully, since it's been 7 days since the OP initially posted, they have had time to take up the suggestions that were made and have been able to find some solutions/answers.
Maybe they can give us an update soon.

The thread has become quite long and being at 8 pages or more, sometimes it's hard to read all the postings/comments.

Necrospy/diagnostics/testing/contacting Ag/Labs/LE/etc., etc., and the mention of HPAI has been brought up at least 15 times over the last 8 pages. I'm sorry if I missed a few.

Most states have a state lab that will perform testing and give a report of their findings. When you have several birds die suddenly, of course, this is the best route to take. However, every once in a while, testing/diagnostics may not be practical due to fees/shipping/degradation of carcasses or some other foreseen reason.
Again, hopefully the OP can let us know if they have any more information to share.

If you've disposed of the bodies, I'm afraid any further discussion will just be guessing since there are no clues to develop. Also, a body could be sent to a lab for a necropsy

Since you are in TX, you have access to very good state lab facilities.
Refrigerate the bodies (all of them if possible) and call your lab to have a necropsy/diagnostics.

You might want to call law enforcement or animal control to come out and take a look.

It would be well worth your money to send a body to be necropsied. Address is

They are the only people who will have an answer for you:
https://tvmdl.tamu.edu/tests/necropsy-poultry/

I agree necropsy would be the only way to find out what happened.

but could it be the avian flu?

It is true that HPAI can cause sudden death, but you should have noticed respiratory symptoms

I hope you get some answers and if a necropsy

It sounds like you should take one of the chickens to the vet to have them check

contact your local agriculture department and test them for bird flu.

I'd 100% get those dudes checked out by a lab ASAP

Have someone test

Only thing I can think of is to have a vet do a necropsy

 

[CristaBelle]

@CristaBelle Welcome back to BYC!

Hopefully, since it's been 7 days since the OP initially posted, they have had time to take up the suggestions that were made and have been able to find some solutions/answers.
Maybe they can give us an update soon.

The thread has become quite long and being at 8 pages or more, sometimes it's hard to read all the postings/comments.

Necrospy/diagnostics/testing/contacting Ag/Labs/LE/etc., etc., and the mention of HPAI has been brought up at least 15 times over the last 8 pages. I'm sorry if I missed a few.

Most states have a state lab that will perform testing and give a report of their findings. When you have several birds die suddenly, of course, this is the best route to take. However, every once in a while, testing/diagnostics may not be practical due to fees/shipping/degradation of carcasses or some other foreseen reason.
Again, hopefully the OP can let us know if they have any more information to share.

ya, weird. I didn't see ANY answers. Maybe y'all have changed your format? Or my browser is out of date? (Chrome, it says "no update needed" but who knows...) but I could not see ANY replies. Also, the email indicating that someone had "just posted" this question showed date to be from today. So, my computer is apparently lost in a time warp. Or I am! :-]

 

[Wyorp Rock]

ya, weird. I didn't see ANY answers. Maybe y'all have changed your format? Or my browser is out of date? (Chrome, it says "no update needed" but who knows...) but I could not see ANY replies. Also, the email indicating that someone had "just posted" this question showed date to be from today. So, my computer is apparently lost in a time warp. Or I am! :-]

That is weird!
Well, if it's been a couple of years since you were last on, you may need to update your browser or something. I'm definitely not a tech savvy person, but you may want to look at your profile settings and see if anything has been turned off.
You may need to enable push notifications. I can't remember now, I don't use Chrome anymore, so maybe someone can chime in with some tips!

 

[More_eggs]

Hello. I am looking to see of anyone might have a clue to our mystery. Yesterday evening we went out to the coop to collect eggs and all 12 hens and our 1 rooster were dead in the coop. None of them in the run. They were all on one side of the coop and it was the strangest thing. No indication of a predator. They're all different ages, the oldest being 3 years and the youngest not even a year.

They had stopped laying for several months, so we added in black sunflower oil seeds, all stock sweet feed, and catfish food pellets. Within 2 days they started laying again. This was a little over a week ago. My thought initially is if it were poison, then wouldn't they be scattered through out the run and the coop?..and they all died the same afternoon... any thoughts?

Have you been noticing possums around the area? If yes, how have you been treating them whenever you see some?

 

[NatJ]

You may need to enable push notifications. I can't remember now, I don't use Chrome anymore, so maybe someone can chime in with some tips!

I'm using Firefox on my computer, not Chrome, but I do not need push notifications. When I click on the link for a thread, it shows the original post and the responses that have been posted so far. (If anyone responds after that, I won't see them until I reload the page.)

 

[Redwing Blackbird]

Can you get free HPAI autopsy from state vet?