Chicken peeps - need your advice

[GoodTimes]

Just as an aside, congestive heart failure can be secondary to something else. Sodium toxicity can cause right heart failure, as can lung pathologies. These wouldn’t necessarily be picked up on a basic necropsy.
Obesity can also lead to heart failure in poultry.
Chickens don’t have the same capacity as us to deal with changes in blood volume. Any sort of fluid overload can lead to heart failure, even in otherwise healthy birds.

I would completely cut corn/scratch out of the diet. Corn doesn’t keep a chicken warmer in the winter. It may provide extra calories, but a healthy bird with a draft free coop can deal with the cold weather just fine. If you want to throw them a handful before bed during a cold snap go ahead, but don’t kill them with kindness.

[Abbie.S]

There were no secondary lung abnormalities noted on the necropsy results, but I had read that as well re: lung pathologies leading to heart failure.

Definitely no fat chickens on this farm, but yes, we’ve cut out the straight corn feeds. Now that the weather is perking up a bit around here, the “healthy” group is much more active and normal looking, so I’m not too worried about them, although there’s only one chicken laying routinely in that group and I know it’s her because she’s the only one that lays blue eggs.

If the sick Australorp doesn’t perk up by the end of the weekend, we’re going to euthanize her. She’s fighting us more each day, which gives me a bit of hope. I’ll start her on the Tylan-200 injections tonight and see if that helps at all. I saw her eat on her own yesterday for the first time in a while, and she’s consistently been drinking. I think she’s just so underweight and weak that she doesn’t have much energy to do anything else, so between the force-feeding, a close eye and some more meds, my fingers are crossed.

[GoodTimes]

Fingers crossed for you.
I had to put down my easter egger in January. She stopped laying in September, thought she was just molting. Late November I noticed that she had an impacted crop. Since she seemed to be otherwise healthy I had my large animal vet do crop surgery. Surgery went well, she was full of grass. She was underweight but we thought that was from going without food while dealing with the impaction, she still seemed to have an appetite. Unfortunately her appetite disappeared, tube fed while we did a course of antibiotics. She never outwardly acted sick, but was going downhill. Eventually euthanized and did a home necropsy. Turned out her oviduct was so infected it was black and necrotic. Poor girl. She was only two.

Even after telling you that I wouldn’t worry too much about the healthy girls who haven’t started laying again. I have a freeloader speckled sussex. Every year she waits until April/May to start laying again, and then promptly stops and molts in September. My cream legbar starts around Feb/March and stops and molts in Sept/Oct.
My barred rock only took a quick one month break to molt this year. It was tough on her, she was slow coming off the roost every morning for a few weeks. She’s back to laying though.
And my two year old red sexlink and white leghorn have never molted. They laid right through the winter even though I don’t use supplemental light. They’re each giving me 6-7 eggs/wk.

[Simkie]

Underweight is a little odd with what you’ve been feeding–chickens fed corn tend to fatness, and morbidity due to over conditioning. That she’s so thin does certainly point to parasites, or something else systemic going on with her.

Glad to hear she’s starting to perk up a bit, yay!

[MrsFitzDarcy_amp_Feliks]

@GoodTimes

Eventually euthanized and did a home necropsy.

I wish I were brave enough to this myself.

I’ve had a really hard time with respiratory infection here in Tucson. The chickens get massive eye puffiness, and I have get the exudate out. Often the ball is in between the size of a lima bean and a chocolate Whopper. They usually don’t make it though. They get really skinny and die. I’ve tried every over-the-counter antibiotic, but they don’t work. Interestingly I had more of a problem with my bantam Wyandottes than my bantam Faverolles.

[GoodTimes]

Where are you located? If this is a trend I would look into sending one to your state lab to figure out what it is.

I’ve got a closed flock. I only get day olds, no older birds. I have “chicken” clothes and footwear that don’t leave my property. I don’t wear any other footwear into my coop. There’s always the possibility that wild birds could infect my flock, but so far I haven’t had to deal with any infectious diseases.

[MrsFitzDarcy_amp_Feliks]

@GoodTimes

Where are you located? If this is a trend I would look into sending one to your state lab to figure out what it is.

I’m in Tucson, AZ. I no longer have my flocks at home because I moved within city limits. A friend has my Wyandotte flock. I tried to have my Faverolles at my new house, but I made a mistake thinking they had water when then didn’t, and my last pair died. I felt horrible. I lost my others to some kind of wasting disease. No upper respiratory problems with the Favs.

Great idea with the clothes and shoes. Unfortunately, most show breeders don’t ship chicks, unlike hatcheries. I’ve had to get juveniles and adults to build up my flock.

I agree with the state lab idea. If I have this problem again, I will do that.

[Abbie.S]

Well, the sick Australorp died yesterday. I’ll send her off to do a necropsy as well, although I’m 99% her cause of death was anorexia: I have been force feeding her for almost two weeks with probiotic yogurt and layer crumble slurry but I’m pretty sure she was not eating on her own. When I examined her she was skin and bones. Her three quarantine mates seem perfectly healthy and content, one (or possibly two of them) are laying, so short of needing some additional recoop time to grow their feathers back, they should be okay.

It’s frustrating, I don’t understand how our landlords basically fed and watered the chickens and that was about it, and never had so many losses, while we’ve taken a vested interest in chicken care and seem to have been hit with several dead birds in the last 6-8 months.

Everyone is on a chick starter feed with 20% crude protein, free choice oyster shell and grit and water that I will continue to add a vitamin drench to until the end of the month. The healthy group only has a couple gals laying right now, so hopefully that will change with the increase in protein.

[Simkie]

I’m really sorry you keep losing birds

It might be that the flock was just on the edge of this sort of mass decline, and the stress of moving tipped them over the edge. Chickens really are one of those fine-fine-find-oh-surprise-dead animals, they don’t give you a whole lot of warning.

It sounds like you’re certainly treating them a lot better than their previous owners.

[skydy]

I have nothing to add since I know nothing (but what I’ve learned on COTH chicken threads) about chickens and had no idea they were so delicate. I’m sorry about your chicken losses @Abbie.S

I must say that I am tickled pink by the wonderful names of chicken breeds, the Australorps, Wyandottes, Faverolles, Cream Legbars, Red Sexlinks, Easter Eggers, and Buff Orpingtons.

Good luck with your chickens, and thanks for the education.

[Abbie.S]

Yes, I’m learning chickens are a lot like avocados…

Hopefully this is the end of the dying birds. Thanks for all your help, @Simkie, and everyone else who contributed thoughts and ideas.

[TheDBYC]

How old are they? And how big was the farm they came from? Several 1000 chickens?

[Mosey_2003]

Yeah, chickens are funny like that. Avocado comparison is apt I have the most trouble with wild birds bringing crap around. And I breed enough that I get a few failure to thrives and a birth defect occasionally. It doesn’t shock me to find a dead bird now and then, though it does make me sad and I do a necropsy to determine why.

I’ll be interested to see what the lab says this time.

[Abbie.S]

The Australorps came from a large farm, not sure exact number but if I had to guess based on my visit there it’s several hundred. They were quite beat up when they came last fall - lots of missing feathers, angry red bottoms/vents, etc. I don’t think it was just from molting. As for age, less than two years, I think they were somewhere in the ballpark of 8 months when they arrived at our place.

The Wyandottes are actually from the same farm but came in much better health, fully feathered, and have stayed healthy since. We lost one very randomly one day about a year ago, no signs of illness prior so I have to believe it was a cardiac event.

[TheDBYC]

Forgot to ask: Do you know if there have ever been chickens at your place before?

[Simkie]

With how you describe the Australorps when you got them, I think it’s pretty clear that your husbandry or environment isn’t to blame here. With 100s of birds, it’s likely the previous home had the same sort of losses (or more) and either don’t know (a flock WILL strip a carcass) or are dismissing them as “normal.”

[Abbie.S]

Yes, the previous owners of this flock have kept chickens for several years. To be clear, we took over ownership of the existing flock - in its existing housing/environment - when the property was sold but we were/are still tenants of the rental cottage on the property.

@Simkie, I agree. Doesn’t make it any less frustrating, though. Hopefully the changes we made and the arrival of less stressful weather will turn things around for this group. I’m also hoping I can re-introduce the quarantined birds back into the flock without them getting beaten up again.

[Mosey_2003]

@Abbie.S

I’m also hoping I can re-introduce the quarantined birds back into the flock without them getting beaten up again.

Take the top hen out for a couple days when you put the quarantined ones back in, then she’ll come in at a lower status.

[Abbie.S]

I was honestly going to just create a mini coop adjacent to the current one so the quarantine hens and the rest of the flock can see and interact with each other but not get at one another, then put them all together. That’s what we did the first time they were introduced and it seemed to work well.

[TheDBYC]

I’m wondering if the members of one flock could be asymptomatic carriers of Marek’s.