My neighbors chickens are dying

Here is an article from the USDA APHIS concerning chicken symptoms.

Maybe you should wear a mask when you feed them. I wouldn't get too close.

lion of judah,

I am curious which state you live in. Please don't feel obligated to answer -- it is fine if you would prefer not to.

  Hey Lion of Judah, don't worry about throwing the food on the ground, Chickens love to eat from the ground.

I think I would call the state health department and report the deaths. Then I would follow their instructions to the letter.

I wish I had seen this sooner, (meaning that I have read this thread many times and never thought to call in the health department. It's the obvious that keeps escaping me. )


lion of judah...where are you? Hope everything is ok.

Have you spoken to your neighbor? I would ask HER to call the health department. They're her chickens.

If this was high path avian flu the chickens would likely all be dead or very sick by now. High path AI hits very hard, has a nearly 100% infection rate and 100% cfr in an affected flock. The symptoms are dramatic -- you KNOW the birds are sick.

Calling the health department may result in the destruction of your neighbor's flock or a major inconvenience for your neighbor over nothing. Unless ALL the birds start dying I'd let her make the call. There are quite a few diseases that may cause a low rate of fatality and are officially (and IMHO, wrongly) cause of official culling by some states. Many are endemic in the environment and culling the flock accomplishes nothing except making a few factory farm corporations happy.

Things that will cause the occasional chicken to drop dead:

First off, the birds are going into MOLT. This means that they will be unusually stressed and the weekest members of the flock may croak. I currently have about fifty chickens and I'm honestly surprised not to have any dead ones yet. It happens.

Also:

Extreme heat
Moderate heat plus underlying illness -- Mareks lymphoma, active respiratory infection (mycoplasma), coryza, fowlpox, etc.
Couple dozen non-zoonotic diseases will cause a low rate of death in the flock.
Mold problems in the bedding or feed
Toxins in the environment
Old age
Genetics -- I breed marans and expect to lose a certain number of roosters between 16 and 22 weeks. Necropsy generally reveals that the birds died of an aortic aneurysm.
Misadventure. Accounts for more chickens than I'd like ... I lost two hens recently who tipped a plastic feeding tub over on themselves and then died under it from heat stroke.
Fighting -- chickens are mean and nasty to each other.
Poor diet.
Rain -- birds can and do get hypothermia if they get sick.

Plus, only two birds? That can also be pure dumb luck that two of them died. I would NOT be panicking if two birds out of a whole flock died. Even a small flock. I'd be just looking for #3, because, you know, bad luck happens in threes.

Note: symptoms of a respiratory infection in a flock -- sneezing birds (sneezing chickens squeak), noisy breathing (rattling, squeaking, "sounds like a bad chest cold" noises), no eggs -- though this time of year, you might not be getting eggs anyway as it's molting time.

Anyway -- unless a bunch more die I'd let your neighbor deal with it. Like I said, High Path AI is dramatic you will KNOW in short order if high path AI is the problem.

lion of judah, what did you do about / with the two dead chickens? Did you leave them in the pen?

The chickens were in the pen when I was looking after them they had died before she left and she had removed them before she left. She said they removed them with plastic trash bags and were careful not to touch the birds at all. I ask what they did with the bodies and she said her husband took care of that and she didn't ask and didn't want to know. Praise God nothing happen when I had them because I wouldn't have removed it.