Hen passed a very large fluid filled sac

Good to know that

At this point she appears to be completely back to normal. Flapping her wings, pooped 3 times, no prolapse and getting loud so I put her back with the flock and will keep an eye on her. The rest of the flock appears to be healthy with high energy and big appetites.

Tried to retrace my steps with the recent respiratory issue and my only thoughts are maybe the undigested feed was not giving them enough of what they needed, the recent cold snap here, and adding some fresh construction gravel/sand to a small area inside the coop which placed too much stress on them. That might have been a bad idea as that area of the coop is sealed with plastic for the winter and the dust had no way to escape when they initially kicked it up which is now a regret for me. I will follow up with how she is doing in a few days.

Thank you to everyone for helping me out here.

This might have been my mistake……….not really sure. I now understand the dust can place a burden on their system at least that is what I have read.

petrus said:

Thanks everyone for the help.

I had to older hens pass away from a respiratory illness about 2 weeks apart with the last one passing about 1 week ago. I isolated them as soon as I noticed they didn't look right upon my daily inspection. Unfortunately I was not able to help them and each passed in about 24 hours. I noticed this on a thread here and it seems to add up.

Any thoughts on it and looking forward on what I might expect? I have started to ferment some of my feed hoping the increased nutrition will be helpful. Since I feed them the pellet form of organic soy free feed I noticed that the pellet often seem to be hardly digested as they appear in their poop. After only 2 days the poop is noticeably better..............looking completely digested and firmer.

Thank you.

http://en.aviagen.com/assets/Tech_Center/LIR_Tech_Articles/Indian-River-Be-Smart-IBV.pdf

Click to expand...

I'm sure someone will lambaste me for this but be very careful fermenting feed. It can go horribly wrong, not being a natural feed for avian species, who have a crop that is very sensitive to molds. I personally know a woman who lost some of her flock from doing this and almost lost a few others (I was on the emergency phone call as they were dying). It was the feed, necropsy confirmed it. It may be fine for cows and horses but avians don't process their feed the same way.

Of course, respiratory stuff is usually something that stays with the bird for life and you cannot permanently cure most of those illnesses, only alleviate symptoms if it's bacterial and not viral. Viruses have to run the course and most are like herpes, make the bird a Typhoid Mary.

Thank you Speckledhen. What I have been doing is making very small batches and tasting the feed myself while visually inspecting it. Not actually eating it myself but tasting for a slight sour/tang.

I ferment all the vegetables and fruits that I consume or at least about 90% so I have fresh starter continuously which is especially made from several specific strains that raise the vitamin content of the vegetables most especially raising the vitamin K levels more so than just a natural ferment. I eat fermented vegetables and berries daily and the amounts are fairly substantial.

With the feed it ferments in about 2 days at this temperature so I will have at least 2 buckets going with only enough feed for1- 2 days so that it is constantly fresh as I dump out the old water and starter and start new with the fresh starter and filtered water using my tap filter which is a 5 stage reverse osmosis system

But I do understand exactly what you are saying and I have been very careful and everything looks good so far. Thank you very much for the words of caution and I take it completely as a very caring comment on your part. I don’t want anything bad happening to my girls…….much appreciated.

BTW I'm not giving them 100% fermented feed.................it's about 30-40% but still I will be very careful and constantly observe.

Quote: @petrus thank you for taking my comments in the spirit in which they were given. Best of luck with your birds.

The Black Australorp seems to be doing fine now.............could have been just a one time thing.

My screen name has changed from Petrus to chitownhens.............thanks for the help.

chitownhens said:

The Black Australorp seems to be doing fine now.............could have been just a one time thing.

My screen name has changed from Petrus to chitownhens.............thanks for the help.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the update!

-Kathy

Glad to hear it!