I rarely lose chickens, but just had to dispatch my second one in a week. The first was my amazingly awesome roo that I have had for several years. I went out to work on the run and heard something, saw his feet sticking out form behind a trashcan, kicking every so often 
. I thought maybe the two roos got into a fight and he lost, but there was little evidence of that (no feathers, no blood bath). He was acting off a couple weeks ago, so I had already mentally prepared for a mercy cull, but never seemed to get worse, maybe a bit better. I thought it was genetics b/c I had to cull one of the two hens that I got from the same person at the same time (same breed, BLRW) for sour crop. He has always been heavy on his feet, and got to the point his "ankles" seemed to be giving out on him. I still don't know what happened, but I did notice his head was dark and swollen.
Today I go out to check on the chickens after being gone since 4:30 am and find a year old hen laying on the ground, it looked like she was dust bathing, but she didn't move when I came into the run. Odd. Then I noticed she was breathing heavy. They were out of water (no idea why, normally the 2 gallons will last them 24 hours with some to spare... maybe one of them knocked it over somehow??) so I thought maybe dehydration, but when I stuck her beak in water she just kept panting/gasping. No moving, no fighting. No attempt to drink. Nothing. Really weird. The comb was pale, but not swollen like the rooster. I checked for prolapsed vent, nothing out of the ordinary there. Couldn't find any obvious injuries. One thing to note that this is one of the above roosters offspring.
The one thing I can think of is possible buttercup poisoning?? But I have no idea what that would look like in a chicken, and Google isn't helping me find much of a definitive answer. We just moved them to a new coop, and only recently have they been out in the run all day every day. I didn't think much of the buttercup because they had always been free ranging in and around them, but maybe with the higher concentration of them it's a bigger issue?? The area is pretty well picked clean at this point - some scraggly parts of the plan left, but flowers are gone. I checked the droppings under the coop and didn't see a single hint of blood so I don't think cocci. Another option is the run is where the cow pasture was, but again, they have been free ranging out there for years! Argh. So discouraging :evil:
. I thought maybe the two roos got into a fight and he lost, but there was little evidence of that (no feathers, no blood bath). He was acting off a couple weeks ago, so I had already mentally prepared for a mercy cull, but never seemed to get worse, maybe a bit better. I thought it was genetics b/c I had to cull one of the two hens that I got from the same person at the same time (same breed, BLRW) for sour crop. He has always been heavy on his feet, and got to the point his "ankles" seemed to be giving out on him. I still don't know what happened, but I did notice his head was dark and swollen. Today I go out to check on the chickens after being gone since 4:30 am and find a year old hen laying on the ground, it looked like she was dust bathing, but she didn't move when I came into the run. Odd. Then I noticed she was breathing heavy. They were out of water (no idea why, normally the 2 gallons will last them 24 hours with some to spare... maybe one of them knocked it over somehow??) so I thought maybe dehydration, but when I stuck her beak in water she just kept panting/gasping. No moving, no fighting. No attempt to drink. Nothing. Really weird. The comb was pale, but not swollen like the rooster. I checked for prolapsed vent, nothing out of the ordinary there. Couldn't find any obvious injuries. One thing to note that this is one of the above roosters offspring.
The one thing I can think of is possible buttercup poisoning?? But I have no idea what that would look like in a chicken, and Google isn't helping me find much of a definitive answer. We just moved them to a new coop, and only recently have they been out in the run all day every day. I didn't think much of the buttercup because they had always been free ranging in and around them, but maybe with the higher concentration of them it's a bigger issue?? The area is pretty well picked clean at this point - some scraggly parts of the plan left, but flowers are gone. I checked the droppings under the coop and didn't see a single hint of blood so I don't think cocci. Another option is the run is where the cow pasture was, but again, they have been free ranging out there for years! Argh. So discouraging
:evil:
