Why do my chickens keep dying???

[Texpatriate]

I've live in SO Cal, and would never consider it like Texas weather... Maybe it depends on location..

Glad your babes are doing well!

Our weather here in West Texas tends to be dry, dusty, and windy, but warm, but we usually will get a good hard freeze or two with several inches of snow for a few days in the winter. But this past winter was very mild with nearly no snow to speak of. Imagine Bakersfield with a little bit colder winters and more dust storms. Our winters in Tennessee were much worse for sure, and we had to deal with lots of rain combined with a lot of leaves, which was a recipe for molds and fungi.

The arid, almost desert conditions here in West Texas are a double edged sword. Because we don't get much moisture we don't have the hygienic problems that come with damp conditions like mold, etc., but the dust in the air can be hard on respiratory systems. But having said that, people have kept chickens here for over a century since the first Anglo settlers came to West Texas, without nearly the number of problems I've had.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Our weather here in West Texas tends to be dry, dusty, and windy, but warm, but we usually will get a good hard freeze or two with several inches of snow for a few days in the winter. But this past winter was very mild with nearly no snow to speak of. Imagine Bakersfield with a little bit colder winters and more dust storms. Our winters in Tennessee were much worse for sure, and we had to deal with lots of rain combined with a lot of leaves, which was a recipe for molds and fungi.

The arid, almost desert conditions here in West Texas are a double edged sword. Because we don't get much moisture we don't have the hygienic problems that come with damp conditions like mold, etc., but the dust in the air can be hard on respiratory systems. But having said that, people have kept chickens here for over a century since the first Anglo settlers came to West Texas, without nearly the number of problems I've had.

I moved out of Bakersfield 2,5 years ago!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

What I'm gathering does appear that it may partially be weather related.

And checking for pasty butt is so easy to miss sometimes and super deadly fast.

How big is your coop/run and how many birds in there total? Not including brooders.

And is your medicated chick starter, in fact medicated with amprolium? Amprolium as well as Corid (name brand) actually is a thiamine blocker that slows the growth of coccidia. It does not actually kill them. Every sing poo has coccidia in it... warm and humid conditions help cocci to grow rapidly and sometimes out of control. And sometimes the amount int the medicated feed may not be enough to combat the load and you may still have to treat.

But other than sudden death... we need to hear some type of symptoms.

Do your birds have plenty of shade when it starts to warm up? And how is the ventilation on it?

I'm sure at this point you know I'm not trying to find things to nit pick at just get the whole picture and try to be supportive. I agree it SHOULD NOT be this hard, and I hope you get back to the joys of keeping instead of the fear of losing real soon!

Did you have any of your original birds when you came to Texas or did you ... actually, I see you bought juvenile birds... Are those still alive? They are my first suspect to bringing something in...

 

[EggSighted4Life]

One other quick note... sometimes worming a bird that might already have a weakened immunity can cause death...

Again. sorry if it seems like I am jumping all over the place... My head spins circles trying to get the info out.

 

[Texpatriate]

First let me say that antibiotics only help bacterial infections and will do nothing for viruses... And rooster booster has antibiotics in it. The more antibiotics you through in there not knowing what you are fighting... the more ineffective they are... You must use the right one for the right thing otherwise you are just building resistance to the drug..

So let's take it back to basics about what your current issue is and what you are doing instead of what happened in the past...

What do you feed including supplements and treats? How big is your flock and what ages/genders?

Your new location may have special considerations that your old one didn't including possible disease already on the land.

Honestly I NEVER clean my feed and water dishes except the occasional scrub if slime develops on the water bowl.

I don't typically give them the rooster booster vitamins and electrolytes daily, only about 2x per week, same as the probios. I haven't heard that there are antibiotics in the rooster booster vitamins & electrolytes, I'll have to look into that.

As far as flock details, that's a bit complicated. I have a flock of large fowl chickens of various breeds, all hens/pullets- 3 Wyandottes, 1 Australorp, 1 Polish, 1 Dominique, two barnyard mixes that have just started to lay, and two 4.5 month old Silver Leghorns who aren't laying yet. Then I've got 5 small breeding pens with pairs/trios of adult Serama Bantams. I have not lost many birds once they start to lay, and until I started loosing chicks recently, most of my losses have been with Juvenile birds between 3/4 weeks to the onset of lay. My thinking on that is if they're able to survive the chicken holocaust that is my backyard long enough to start laying, they've built up enough of an immune system that they'll be fine from here on out.

I keep juvenile birds old enough to be out of the brooder separate from both chicks and adults until they get close to laying age and can fend for themselves with the big girls.

As far as chicks go, I've got two separate brooder situations, one for Seramas, and one for large fowl and bigger bantams, both indoors. Just a couple of days ago I moved a lot of my large fowl chicks who've feathered out to a larger 6'x4' covered outdoor pen since the weather has warmed up quite a bit here now, but they still have a heat lamp and fresh shavings. I was concerned that maybe my chick problems were possibly due to overcrowding (though this hasn't been a problem in the past) and wanted to give them some more space, plus they are starting to try to fly more. I was really worried they would get cold over night in spite of the heat lamp, and when I checked in the morning I had one loss, one of the larger chicks with the most feathers, so I don't think it was from getting too cold.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hygromycin b, don't know if it's in all their products or just some...

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Main problem in brooder overcrowding would be Coccidiosis aside from behavioral issues that I can see. I have had shaving be wetter underneath than they looked on top. But cocci shows symptoms, standing around and puffed up sleeping... it isn't sudden death.

Weird to lose one when you put 'em out...

 

[Texpatriate]

What I'm gathering does appear that it may partially be weather related.

And checking for pasty butt is so easy to miss sometimes and super deadly fast.
Most of the dead chicks have not had pasty butt. It's like they go from completely fine with no noticeable symptoms one minute, to dead the next minute.

How big is your coop/run and how many birds in there total? Not including brooders.
See my previous post. I will also add that my adult large fowl birds all free range most days in our very large 1 acre yard.

And is your medicated chick starter, in fact medicated with amprolium? Amprolium as well as Corid (name brand) actually is a thiamine blocker that slows the growth of coccidia. It does not actually kill them. Every sing poo has coccidia in it... warm and humid conditions help cocci to grow rapidly and sometimes out of control. And sometimes the amount int the medicated feed may not be enough to combat the load and you may still have to treat.
I assume that its amprolium, but I'll check the label when I get home from work tomorrow morning (I'm pulling a 24hr shift at the hospital today. Yay.)

But other than sudden death... we need to hear some type of symptoms.
Mostly no symptoms, except for occasionally the symptoms you'd expect from cocci- inactive bird standing over in the corner, etc. But the Corid has not seemed to stop it. Also have had some "chicken coughs", but the antibiotics seem to have stopped that. Yet they're still dying.

Do your birds have plenty of shade when it starts to warm up? And how is the ventilation on it?
Lots of shade in the areas where our coops are. For West Texas, we have a lot of trees in our yard. Coops are well ventilated, but with roosting areas where they can get out of the wind..

I'm sure at this point you know I'm not trying to find things to nit pick at just get the whole picture and try to be supportive. I agree it SHOULD NOT be this hard, and I hope you get back to the joys of keeping instead of the fear of losing real soon!

Did you have any of your original birds when you came to Texas or did you ... actually, I see you bought juvenile birds... Are those still alive? They are my first suspect to bringing something in...
Yes, with the exception of Seramas (which nobody seems to sell as chicks, only juvenile and adult birds) I will never buy juvenile birds again, only chicks or hatching eggs. We don't have any adult birds that came with us from Tennessee except for one random Mille Fleur D'uccle old lady who coops with one of my Serama pairs, but there haven't been any problems in there at all. The problems have all been with Juveniles who haven't started to lay, and suddenly now chicks. One of the juvenile birds that we bought when we first started our flock back up here in Texas started to have a "chicken cough" soon after we got her and I'm pretty sure that's where this all started. But I've treated the entire flock with antibiotics for respiratory issues (MS, MG, etc.) multiple times since then and haven't been able to wipe it out.

 

[Texpatriate]

One other quick note... sometimes worming a bird that might already have a weakened immunity can cause death...

Again. sorry if it seems like I am jumping all over the place... My head spins circles trying to get the info out.

I didn't loose any birds during the weeks after I wormed them, which surprised me. This all started back up about 3-4 weeks after I wormed with Wazine back in February, so I don't think it was related.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

My hubby pulls doubles sometimes, He is an RN but they only do 8's. Those make for pretty tiring days! I imagine 24 is MUCH harder than 16.

I know there are some illness, sorry I don't know which... but the birds will always remain carriers of them...

And in other animals like my dogs... the older ones are not effected by Parvo/distemper... but pups who have weaned of mum and aren't getting her antibodies any longer will succumb to it very rapidly.

Kinda sounds like your situation... I will put some more thought into it. Many heads are better than one (sometimes).

If you accidentally fall asleep at work... just make sure you say "Amen" when you lift your head... then they can't fire you!

Though I'm mostly joking, it's real.