4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[sallyv74]

Hello everybody,

 

I'm a relatively novice chicken keeper - had 2 bantam hens and a bantam cockerell who all died this week and now have one 8 week old chick left that has survived the last 2 days and looks fine, but very lonely.

 

The 3 that died didn't really show any major signs of illness and looked fine. They were just really lethargic but I stupidly just put it down to the hot weather. The first died early evening, the second died the following morning and then the third died that afternoon on the way to the vets. The vet didn't seem to know what it was and said that unless they sent it away to be checked they wouldn't really be able to say what was wrong.

 

The problem I now have is that I don't know whether there was some kind of infection, in which case it might be dangerous to get more chickens in, but I also have one very sad and lonely little chicken (my 3 yr old tries talking to it but I don't think it's the same as a chicken pal!). As it's quite small and vulnerable it's also being watched very closely by the neighbourhood cats.

 

It's all so sad and I miss my chickens but I need to know what to do for the one remaining. It was suggested to me that the fairest thing to do would be to put this one down as they don't like being on their own and it may be carrying whatever infection the others had but I really don't want to to this if I can avoid it.

 

If we do introduce more chickens, what can I do to stop them getting ill if there is some infection killing them - have cleaned the hen house out with Jeyes but as they are quite free-range, I'd struggle to completely disinfect the area they roam in.

 

Sorry for such a long post but would really appreciate some advice! Thanks.

[hippy chick]

Oh dear this must be an awful time for you. I'm so very sorry for your loss. I'm afraid that I don't have any advice for you but I'm sure someone who does will be along real soon.

Fingers crossed.

Jilly

[Olly]

Really sorry to hear that. It's correct that chickens don't like to live on their own, but don't give up hope yet.

 

It might help if you could give us a bit more of a description both of what happened to the hens, and what your set-up is. Were they sneezing, wheezing, showing any other signs of illness? How old were they? Were the hens laying, were their droppings funny? Had you wormed them recently?

 

Do you have an Eglu or a wooden coop - is it on soil, do you move it around? Do you think they could have eaten something (maybe while free-ranging) or drunk contaminated water or something?

 

I'm not sure we'll be able to identify what the problem was, but there might be some suggestions as to how to move forward. I would avoid using Jeyes fluid by the way - I know it's poisonous to cats, but I believe it's not ideal for hens, although obviously you're using it after the event, here. Very sorry to hear about your experience, and I hope the collective knowledge of the Omlet forum might come up with some solutions for you.

[sallyv74]

Hi again,

 

Thanks for your quick replies so far.

 

A bit more info - the adults are probably about 1 1/2 yrs old (one slightly older - about 3), they are kept in a wooden house, off ground with an area of garden of about 10 metres squared fenced off to roam in. There are some rats etc nearby but no poison put down as far as I'm aware. It's really odd as they all looked fine, were eating okay up until the day they fell ill and died (they have pellets and water and chick crumbs for the baby), were walking around okay until just before they died, poo looked normal, no sneezing or anything like that. They were just really lethargic for a couple of days, to the point that in the morning of the day the first one died, she laid just outside the coop, suggesting she didn't have the energy to get inside to do it. One of them appeared a bit disorientated the day before she died - she escaped into the garden (quite normal for them) but normally when I go to shoo her back into the run she heads straight back for it but this time she tried to hide in some weeds in the other direction which I thought seemed a bit odd. As I said, I just thought it was because they were so hot (there is shade for them though so they should have been okay). They haven't been wormed recently (maybe they should have). The females were laying okay and the male was crowing and seemed happy enough. No sign of any mites or anything like that and no runny poo or oddly coloured poo. When my husband checked them after they'd gone, two of them had slightly weepy eyes but not really puffy. I'm really stumped, especially as the young one is fine but the adults all went so quickly and so close together. Feel bad that I don't know more as am keen to get more but don't want to kill them through lack of knowledge.

 

Thanks for the advice about Jeyes - I got it as that was what the vet recommended to clean - didn't realise it wasn't good for them or for cats. What should I have used instead?

[Ain't Nobody Here]

You poor thing, what an awful time you've had . It's certainly really odd that 3 died all at once . There were definitely no wounds on them? I'm no expert but I'm wondering if the rats had anything to do with it? Isn't there some disease we can get (Weils?) - not sure if chickens are the same?

 

I would probably keep a close eye on the remaining chick just to make sure she's not got what they may have had. She'll be ok on her own for a week or so. Then you'd hopefully be ok to get some new chickens.

 

Again I'm no expert on cleaning fluids but Poultry Shield is one I use for cleaning the eglu and walk in run perches. I also use Stalosan F, a powdered disinfectant which you could put on their freeranging area.

 

Welcome to the forum, by the way, sorry it's such a sad first post .

[Jools]

Hard though it is, I wouldn't introduce any new stock unless you know what caused the death of the other three. It's too late now, but a PM would have been a good idea to find out if it was contagious. Though given the speed, if it wasn't a predator or poison, then it most likely was.

 

I don't know what to suggest about your lone chick, sorry.

[Redwing]

Was the lone chick in with the adults? if not then I'd get it a friend and keep them in a separate hutch or similar until the big coop can be disinfected and power washed and dried and treated with mite stuff (just in case)

 

If it was in with them then move it to a hucth on its own - it will be fine in a cheap ebay rabbit hutch for a while and then clean the coop as above anyway. It will be fine on its own for a few weeks, by that time any illness should be apparent abd if its ok get it a buddy of the same sort of age

 

One possible contender is Mareks disease, it usually causes partial paralysis but sometimes the symptoms are very slight, a classic 'death pose' (sorry ) is one leg forward and one leg back