Why am I losing chickens?

[gabriellebw]

I have lost two young hens (3 years) in the last year to what seems to be the same illness and was hoping someone could tell me what this might be and whether it is contagious.

the first hen got sick two years ago. When we took her to the vet, he said that he felt a mass in her abdomen, but could not diagnose without operating. We gave her a course of antibiotics and she bounced back and was healthy for a year. after a year, she got ill again, but we were able to bring her back using grapefruit extract, gatorade, and garlic. Then, about six months later she fell ill again and this time we had to put her down. about six months after Olive died another of our hens fell ill. Again we took her to the vet and again he felt a mass in her abdomen. We game her a course of antibiotics and like Olive, she bounced back, but unlike Olive, when was only well for a month before getting sick again. We gave her another course of antibiotics, but she died yesterday.

I am trying to figure out whether this is all a coincidence, or whether this is a contagious illness passed from Olive to Clementine. It seems strange that a contagious illness would take so long to make another bird sick (two years after Olive first became ill Clementine got sick.)

Any ideas or similar experiences would be very helpful. I have three remaining hens and don't want them to come down with the same thing.

 

[featherz]

Were these hatchery birds? At 2-3 years that's the prime time for internal laying issues, which can present as a mass and/or swollen abdomen, runny eggy poop, no eggs, etc. If that's what it was, it wasn't contagious, just common for hens of that age group - seems to happen more often in hatchery birds, from what I see here.

 

[Kim95037]

Sorry to hear you lost your hens. I lost a silver wyandotte that I had for two years and more recently 5 baby chicks, which was heartbreaking.I agree with you, it seems strange for two birds to come down with the same thing but be sick so far apart. The thing I think that I would be looking at is environmental. Maybe theres something that they have access to that could be making them sick over a long period of time?Thats the only thing I could think of, or maybe something in their diet? You should really look into having a necropsy done (chicken autopsy). A lot of states do it for free, here in California you just have to pay for shipping which is 35 dollars. I had that done with Millie my wyandotte, and I really wish I would have had it done with my 4 EE bantams that I lost. I ordered them and they were shipped from Ohio so I thought the trip was too hard on them but I got another chick from a local hatchery which was fine for the first few days and them got sick and died just like the the bantams. So now Im wondering if the bantams were sick to begin with. I'll know in a couple of weeks because Im having one done on the one I got from the hatchery. Anyway, with a necropsy at least you will know for sure what killed your hen. Not sure what you've done with her? The best thing to do (and this is kind of morbid) is to put them in the refrigerator after they die (and NOT the freezer). Not sure if it is too late to have one done on your hen but you could probably ask the question. If you ever have another one die and you cant figure out what it is, a necropsy is a good thing to have done, so you know what it is and wether or not it could affect your other chickens.

 

[Kim95037]

Also its possible they could have been egg bound (?). Was the vet you took her to someone who normally works with chickens? I have a great vet for my cats and dog but they dont do chickens and I have to go all the way to Cupertino to a bird place. Chickens are a little tricky I think for a vet that doesnt normally work with them.