We are having terrible problems with our chickens.Since Friday we have had five of our hens die.At first we thought it was one of those things when I found one dead in the coop but then the next morning two more were dead. They seem to be very listless,with swollen crops(full of water it seems),They have been standing in their water as if they're hot but it doesn't seem to be that.We tried emptying the sick one's crops and that seemed to help at first but then another died last night and another this morning. They were given some scraps on Friday(spaghetti squash),could this somehow affected them? It also doesn't seem to affect the roosters,but except for one they are kept in a seperate pen.Is there something that affects only hens? It seems only the biggest,healthiest hens are affected,the smaller ones seem fine. Symptoms are:swollen crops(full of water),listless,no appetite,towards the end problems standing(lie on their side)

Thanks for any help.Jon

-- Jon Hanson (warpaint@islc.net), May 13, 2002

Answers

Perhaps between these two sites you will be able to determine, what the problems is: First site is how to do a Chicken Postmortem, http://msucares.com/pubs/pub1276.htm and the second site has pictures of Common Poultry Diseases, http://www.mainebiolab.com/images/guide.html Between these two sites you should be able to eliminate/identify the common diseases.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), May 13, 2002.

Are your chickens allowed out to forage or are they in a pen? Could it be that they need grit for their crops so they can 'digest' their food? If they are able to get out or have grit availabel then I'm not sure, but I do know that if they don't get grit regularly they can get impacted since the grit it what grinds up the food in the crop before it goes into the intestine. Sorry to hear about your loss.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), May 13, 2002.