Wanted - Eglu Cube Mk1 Roosting Bars

[Thalia]

This morning I let out my chickens but Selene didn't come out of the Eglu. I discovered that she had a dirty bottom and she was looking very sorry for herself. I isolated her and called the vet, but we didn't even make it to the appointment. She died a few hours later.

 

This is the second of two chickens that I had from the same breeder and they've died a week apart. Selene seemed absolutely fine yesterday, and today she went downhill so quickly I didn't even have a chance to get her to the vet.

 

I'm so upset and worried about my other chickens. The other older two seem fine, but then so did Selene yesterday. If I've brought a new chicken in and it means I lose my existing girls then I'll be devastated.

 

I contacted the breeder after Iris died, but he told me that there hadn't been any other problems with her group. I'm now wondering if I should have pressed harder.

 

I'm at a total loss as to how to move on from this. The entire thing has been an utter disaster, and caused a lot of heart ache for me and the family. I feel like all our work has been for nothing.

[MarkBevBen]

Oh Thalia, you poor lamb I really feel for you having also lost two girls in a very short space of time. It's just utterly horrible isn't it

 

You and your family are all in our thoughts and I hope that Selene is playing peacefully with Iris, Cottie, Lottie and all the other animals xxxxxxx

[Minnie&Moose]

Hi Thalia,

 

Very sorry to hear about your chickens - that's very sad and distressing for you. We've just had a similar experience and also live in Oxfordshire - I'm curious as to whether you got your birds from the same place we did and if so, whether they came from the same batch.

[Charlie7]

I am so sorry for you and your family Thalia...

[Chucky Mama]

What a horrible thing for you to experience Did both newbies have diarrhoea? If you can bear in and it is practical it would be worth getting a poo sample across to your vet. I am assuming that your existing birds and the new ones where together. Coccidiosis is something that springs to mind for me. If you are worried, it wouldn't do any harm to treat your other birds with Coxoid. However, they are apparently fit and well and you can get a sample to the vet, you can wait on the results and continue to observe them for any symptoms. It is important to feed this develpment back to the breeder. If they have a problem they need to be made aware.

[Thalia]

I have PMed you, Minnie&Moose. It does seem a big coincidence.

[Chucky Mama]

I have popped this across from 'Chickens' to the 'Clinic'. It may be that members can shed a little light on what may have happened with these 2 chickens previous post re other hen

[Thalia]

Thanks Chucky Mama. A symptom that Selene had that Iris didn't was that she had some discharge from her eye. Both had diarrhea, although Iris had it for a couple of days before she passed away, whereas I'm certain Selene was fine yesterday on that front at least. I'd been keeping an extra eye on her. She was stutting around the garden pretty happily. Her feather condition may have been a little poor but I put that down to the fact that she was still receiving the odd peck from the older two (Hera was being a bit vicious so I separated her). Is it possible stress exacerbated things?

 

I didn't see any blood in the poo to suggest coccidiosis, but is it always present? I don't think I've got a decent sample that I can take to a vet, her last ones were very watery, and I wouldn't be able to tell who was who's in the eglu. I'll order some coxoid to be on the safe side.

 

I'm going to do a thorough clean and move the eglu to new ground tonight as soon as OH gets home to help with the children.

[Roobaloo]

I didn't see any blood in the poo to suggest coccidiosis, but is it always present?

 

Sorry about your loss!

 

My two hens recently had coccidiosis. I suspected one of my chicks of having it...if it hadn't been for that I wouldn't have even thought of cocci affecting the hens. Both showed signs of being unwell...one was very quiet and completely out of character...she did have blood in her faeces by day two. However, my other hen had very watery droppings (both did on day 1) and just seemed a little quiet...not enough to be sure something was wrong though. If both had been like her and I wasn't raising the chicks, I would've just wormed them...

[Plum]

I'm so sorry to hear it. I lost a chicken to coccidiosis and she didn't pass blood but it was a longer illness.

 

You may find this chart useful. There is guidance to causes of sudden death on the left side at the bottom.

http://www.bva-awf.org.uk/resources/posters/BVA_AWF_poultry_poster_2007_2nd_Edition.pdf

 

A PM could help identify what was wrong. Coccidia would show by lesions in the gut.

[Chicken deficient]

You may find this chart useful. There is guidance to causes of sudden death on the left side at the bottom.

http://www.bva-awf.org.uk/resources/posters/BVA_AWF_poultry_poster_2007_2nd_Edition.pdf

 

Brilliant link - thank you very much!

[Thalia]

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. It does seem that the breeder may have had a problem with this batch, so I'll talk to him and see if he can shed any further light on what was wrong. It does seem to fit with coccidiosis, but I'm not sure that I can afford a chicken post mortem.

[Chucky Mama]

Good that you are speaking to the breeder both for your piece of mind and so that they can deal with the issue. Cocci wont really show up on PM unless they retrieve and test some of the faeces. I don't really think it will be worth the expense to be honest.