HELP!!!!! My chickens are dropping dead!

ninny

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My chickens are dropping died over half the flock is died in the last 12 hrs. What the hell is going on? This is ten birds that were fine this morning and now died. They have no marks on them nothing. I have no idea what to do or if the rest are going to drop they seem fine. It's not the feed. The only thing I can think of is the dam duck. He gets the water nasty and i can't always get it cleaned up right away. But it is cleaned every day. HELP!!
 

mrscoyote

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I have chickens and ducks together with no problems. Are they free ranged? Maybe they are eating something they shouldn't.
 

rhoda_bruce

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Can you mix them a gallon of electrolytes and put in a TBLS of children's tylenol (if they are feverish). Also whatever antibiotic you have on hand and force them to drink. I know that can be discouraging. I've been there. If it consoles you, I'd feel if you have any birds that are affected, but do survive, they will be stronger, as a result. You might want to replace and vaccinate the chicks against whatever disease you can think to innoculate them against. Its probably time for me to think about doing that. So sorry you going thru that. Hope you aren't near my neck of the woods. When that happened to me, I found out, there was hardly a living chicken left in the whole town.
 

moxies_chickennuggets

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Can you send one of them to the local Dept of Agriculture lab? I don't know where you are, but I have read some posts on BYC stating that some Ag Depts keep track of chickens diseases. You would have to do some research an find out where and how much it would cost. Sorry for your loss. I hope you can find out what is causing their demise.
 

ninny

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It was the gnats. We lost 20 birds yesterday. The rest are in my basement. Which meant my last rooster was very loud at 2 am. I feel awful. I cleaned the coop and sprayed them all down with my homemade bug spray. Just sucks.
 

so lucky

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I'm so sorry! I was just wondering how everyone on here is doing with the gnats. I don't live near water, so I guess they aren't as bad as they could be here, but are still an aggravation. Anybody know what their life cycle is? When will we be rid of them?
 

sleuth

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ninny said:
It was the gnats. We lost 20 birds yesterday. The rest are in my basement. Which meant my last rooster was very loud at 2 am. I feel awful. I cleaned the coop and sprayed them all down with my homemade bug spray. Just sucks.
Whereabouts are you located? I just heard from my aunt yesterday that they are a big problem in western Indiana this year. We only have 2 chickens and I haven't seen any evidence of gnats around and I'm in SW Ohio.

I saw somewhere that you could put fans in and around your coop to help deter. The gnats don't like the wind.
 

moxies_chickennuggets

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Ok, what is it with the gnats and chickens? I hadn't heard of that before. Do they spread a disease or something?
 

sleuth

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moxies_chickennuggets said:
Ok, what is it with the gnats and chickens? I hadn't heard of that before. Do they spread a disease or something?
They're called buffalo gnats. Here's a blog post I read yesterday about them.
 

moxies_chickennuggets

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Thank you sleuth. I had no idea about gnats and chickens. But I am new to chicken keeping anyway. Just 2 years worth.
 
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