Lucy was a 2-year old SLW, and the picture of health, up until 3 days ago, when I found her sitting around, tail down, and puffed up. I brought her into the house, gave her water with ACV and some Colloidal Silver, and made scrambled eggs mixed with fresh goat milk for her, which she ate a tiny bit of.
My hens free-range in our fenced yard during the day, and have a secure hen house to sleep in at night. The bedding is pine chips, and other than what they find free-ranging, they get Layena layer feed, and kitchen scraps. There were no signs of broken bones or any wounds on her, and she was plump with shiny, healthy plumage. She was a great layer. No worms or other parasites, either, and I checked her for being egg-bound or having crop issues which she did not. The only real symptoms were green, runny poop, not laying, and loss of appetite.
After 2 days of having her in a cage in the house, during which time she got worse, and started breathing with her beak open, I took her out and gave her some water with Colloidal Silver, using a syringe. I stopped after each drop, to let her swallow, which she did. Suddenly she went completely pale (comb and wattles were normal red up until this point), and leaned her head against me for about 30 seconds. Then she started flopping around wildly, and withing seconds she was dead.
I feel horrible, and I'm worried sick about the rest of my flock (no symptoms at this point, other than 2 of them having lost almost all their feathers, which I hope is molt, and not something else.
Any ideas of what this could have been?
My hens free-range in our fenced yard during the day, and have a secure hen house to sleep in at night. The bedding is pine chips, and other than what they find free-ranging, they get Layena layer feed, and kitchen scraps. There were no signs of broken bones or any wounds on her, and she was plump with shiny, healthy plumage. She was a great layer. No worms or other parasites, either, and I checked her for being egg-bound or having crop issues which she did not. The only real symptoms were green, runny poop, not laying, and loss of appetite.
After 2 days of having her in a cage in the house, during which time she got worse, and started breathing with her beak open, I took her out and gave her some water with Colloidal Silver, using a syringe. I stopped after each drop, to let her swallow, which she did. Suddenly she went completely pale (comb and wattles were normal red up until this point), and leaned her head against me for about 30 seconds. Then she started flopping around wildly, and withing seconds she was dead.
I feel horrible, and I'm worried sick about the rest of my flock (no symptoms at this point, other than 2 of them having lost almost all their feathers, which I hope is molt, and not something else.
Any ideas of what this could have been?
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