Avian flu: When/if to freak out?

I lost two birds in a week. They just died. No weight loss or funny behavior except not roosting. I buried them, but if another one goes, I plan to take her to the state poultry lab for a necropsy. How fast does it go through your flock, if that’s even what it was?

Another market vendor suggested I go ahead and call the avian flu hotline, but I’m mind of afraid they’ll just take my whole flock.

Is there anything besides ACV that’s good for boosting their immunity?

Most countries have a scorched earth policy.  Kill all the birds on the property (and sometimes neighboring ones). Often a quarantine of not moving products off the farm for weeks or months (and sometimes neighbouring ones). And other things that can cause a lot of stress and financial loss, so it's not a decision to take lightly.

It's about international trade more than any actual stopping bird flu.

Where I live, just about any flock not 100% indoors with sanitizing workers upon entrey will test positive to bird flu. Even without mortality or symptoms. And even the indoor flocks test positive.   It's so much in the wild bird population here, that it's just a thing.  Depending on the variety the death rate can be between 0 to 90%.

If there are obvious symptoms of bird flu, yes, start the procedure.

But if it's just death, then maybe spend a few days eliminating the usual suspects. There are a lot more things that kill birds than the flu

Diet needs change as the weather changes.  Try some baked liver for a few days and extra oysters shells.

What did the dead birds smell like?  Sour crop, infection, injury, some nutritional deficiency, egg bound, all show up with smell.  What about the alive birds.  Do they have not normal smells?

Bumblefoot and other issues could explain not roosting.  Parasites on the roosts is another one.

And depression.   If they were best friends, the second one might just be sad and that is deadly.

....

My suggestion

Give the hens some extra treats and a deep clean of their house.  Observe them closely (a health check twice a day if possible) and see if they improve in the next week or so.

Any more deaths that you feel might be bird flu, don't burry them as some problems can get in the soil.  Freeze with date and time found dead in case you do want to send them off for testing.  A big note saying NOT FOOD also helps.  If not testing, dispose of the bodies in the local waste management or hazmat system (depending on what your local requirements are) if there is any chance of a communicable illness.

My suggestion would be to contact the local vet/health dept and have the chickens tested.

It would be sad if this problem became a something county wide.

If you have cold/flu symptoms contact you local health care provider.

I wouldn't involve the authorities because I want to breed the survivors. The authorities have a different set of priorities.

r ranson wrote:  Parasites on the roosts is another one.

Twice I have been visiting and had the chicken herder complain about birds not roosting/not going to bed, and both times they had a major mite/lice problem.

There are different types of mites, and some of them are deadly (blood mites is what my friend calls one of the deadlier variety.)

So I will back up Ms Ranson's suggestion of a thorough clean up as step 1. I use a veggie oil with a few drops of Tea Tree oil added to it to thoroughly oil the perches. My understanding is that this will smother the mites. Some humans are very sensitive to the odour of Tea Tree oil, but I'm only using 5 drops in about 1 1/2 cups of oil. I agree that too much of anything smelly could hurt delicate chicken lungs, but that's enough mix to do more than two 10 ft perches, and I haven't seen any ill effects beyond the perches being a bit slippery for a couple of days!

Are your birds using their nest boxes? That's the next place to check thoroughly. This is the one place where I prophylactically use Diatomaceous Earth. It too, isn't good for lungs, but I would thoroughly clean the nest boxes, sun solarize them (assuming that big ball in the sky isn't being obliterated by heavy clouds as it is in my neighborhood at the moment) then I sprinkle the DE amongst the nest material.  DE like many things, can kill good guys as  well as bad guys. Just because it's on the "organic" list, doesn't mean that I think it should be over used, but on my farm, a little in the next boxes seem to be a good help.

Our Gov't website lists the following as symptoms, and sudden death is on the list as the last item:

Infected birds may show 1or many of these signs:

lack of energy, movement or appetite
decreased egg production
swelling around the head, neck and eyes
coughing, gasping for air or sneezing
nervous signs, tremors or lack of coordination
diarrhea
sudden death

 Gov't of Canada: protect your flock

Emily, you haven't mentioned an approximate age for the girls that died?  We have found that sudden deaths have tended to happen in either quite young birds, or older geriatric birds. Our geriatric deaths often have shown signs of heart failure, but that's a bit subtle. Taking some good pictures if it happens again would be helpful.