Dead Silkie Hen

[Sky_Chickens]

Hi everyone!

I want to start by saying this is probably the wrong place to put this ask but I really don’t know where else to put it I don’t use this very much but I couldn’t find any categories related to chicken death. I’m really sorry if this is in the completely wrong discussion zone.

Moving on, this morning one of my Silkie Hens, Mrs Splash, who was ironically blue, was found dead. She was about 9 months.

Yesterday I saw her outside and she wasn’t looking too well, she was really easy to push over and super sluggish in her lower half, also she was a little skinny. She seemed really aware though so I wasn’t super concerned because this was basically the same situation that happened with my other Silkie who I posted about here as well, ‘she’ (who was really a he) ended up surviving so I went and pulled out my Vitamins that I used for him and gave them to her. Along with that I gave some to one of my other Silkie Hens as she gets mated with a lot and has weaker legs.

When my brother went out this morning to let everyone out he found her dead by the waterer. I don’t have any pictures but it looked like she had regurgitated the vitamins back up? I’m not really sure. Her beak was filled with what I’m pretty sure was the Vitamin E tablet I could also see bits of the vitamin B Complex.

I had given her this stuff before and she took it no issue, I’ve already done a health check on my other pretty ladies and they are all fine psychically, my other hen named Madam Screech seems a little upset and she keeps looking around. Do chickens grieve? They spent a lot of time together as Madam Screech has been broody on and off these past few months since she laid her first egg and Mrs Splash tended to stay inside more often than not. Along with that her other flock-mate Mrs Puffle is staying inside more and crying.

Long story short my questions are;

Do chickens grieve or try to look for missing/dead flock-mates? If so how can I help them and is it possible for them to grieve themselves to death? I almost had a cat do this once which is why I’m asking.

How can I keep this from happening again? I’m almost positive she had a bad reaction to the vitamins but they where vitamins she had taken just fine before this using the exact same method of opening her beak and putting it in closer to the throat and her crop seemed just fine before she took it.

I feel awful because I’m pretty sure I killed her my brother and I loved her so much, since she usually stayed inside we called her our little house keeper. She was so sweet. I just want to keep this from happening again.

I’ve put some pictures of her here she was camera shy, literally, whenever I pulled out a phone she ran away but here’s some photos so everyone can see how cute she was, you have to really look though as I said she loved to hide

 

[BigBlueHen53]

When you say you put the meds in back of her mouth "closer to her throat" are you talking about the hole you can see in the middle, at the back of the throat?

 

[Sky_Chickens]

When you say you put the meds in back of her mouth "closer to her throat" are you talking about the hole you can see in the middle, at the back of the throat?

Yes, (if I’m understanding what your asking) I didn’t push it down her throat though I just held her beak open and put it closer to the start of her beak so she wouldn’t spit it out again. Is that what got her?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, (if I’m understanding what your asking) I didn’t push it down her throat though I just held her beak open and put it closer to the start of her beak so she wouldn’t spit it out again. Is that what got her?

Not necessarily, but possible. The hole you see at the back of the throat is the trachea. It goes to the lungs. Very common mistake. Sounds like she choked on the meds and hacked them up, but may have been too late. On either side of the beak are channels down which food go into the crop and thence into the "stomach" area for digestion. I'm not using my own phone so I don't have a graphic but maybe @aart will post hers. I'm so sorry this happened but you mustn't blame yourself, you didn't know. To pill a chicken, just put the tablet or whatever in the beak and they will swallow it. Not like a cat or dog where you have to really get it back there behind the tongue or they push it back out.

 

[TillyPeeps]

Not necessarily, but possible. The hole you see at the back of the throat is the trachea. It goes to the lungs. Very common mistake. Sounds like she choked on the meds and hacked them up, but may have been too late. On either side of the beak are channels down which food go into the crop and thence into the "stomach" area for digestion. I'm not using my own phone so I don't have a graphic but maybe @aart will post hers. I'm so sorry this happened but you mustn't blame yourself, you didn't know. To pill a chicken, just put the tablet or whatever in the beak and they will swallow it. Not like a cat or dog where you have to really get it back there behind the tongue or they push it back out.

Here is a great article about how to give chicken meds and it also shows the picture of the hole leading to trachea:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@Sky_Chickens you also asked if chickens grieve. I can't directly answer that, except to say that sometimes they certainly appear to. For this I would like to defer to two people who know more about chicken behavior and psychology than anyone else I know of here on BYC: @Shadrach and @Ridgerunner .

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

Sorry for your loss.
As for your question about if chickens grieve, yes they do. I have witnessed it with my Light Brahmas when one of them died. Puff and Fluff mourned Muff's death for quite awhile.

 

[Sky_Chickens]

Not necessarily, but possible. The hole you see at the back of the throat is the trachea. It goes to the lungs. Very common mistake. Sounds like she choked on the meds and hacked them up, but may have been too late. On either side of the beak are channels down which food go into the crop and thence into the "stomach" area for digestion. I'm not using my own phone so I don't have a graphic but maybe @aart will post hers. I'm so sorry this happened but you mustn't blame yourself, you didn't know. To pill a chicken, just put the tablet or whatever in the beak and they will swallow it. Not like a cat or dog where you have to really get it back there behind the tongue or they push it back out.

Thank you so much All the pictures and diagrams I’ve seen made it look like that wasn’t something that could happen. I’ll make sure to keep this in mind next time I have to give my babies medicine!

 

[Sky_Chickens]

Here is a great article about how to give chicken meds and it also shows the picture of the hole leading to trachea:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

Thank you!!

 

[Sky_Chickens]

@Sky_Chickens you also asked if chickens grieve. I can't directly answer that, except to say that sometimes they certainly appear to. For this I would like to defer to two people who know more about chicken behavior and psychology than anyone else I know of here on BYC: @Shadrach and @Ridgerunner .

Thank you so much for your help! This whole thing has sucked but at least I’m able to learn from it thank you again!