Our RIR "Rosie" just died.

[Backyard Hencam]

Rosie is dead! Our 18 month old RIR acted a little lethargic but ate and drank and roosted with her 5 flockmates for the last week. This afternoon we returned from town to find her lying in the dirt. She was still alive so we wrapped her in a towel and took her inside. I was holding her while stirring some electrolytes into water and she gasped twice and died. I'm heartbroken. Rosie was at the bottom of the pecking order and spent a lot of her time running from the other hens. But she was one of our favorites. She was the first in our laps and the only one who let our granddaughters reach down and pick her up.
After examining her, I found the same yellow discharge from her vent that we found on our BO when an egg broke inside her. We treated the BO see http://www.backyardhencam.com/raising-chickens/daisy-is-ill-egg-broke-inside-her/ and she survived. If only I had known what the problem with Rosie was. We just assumed she was beginning a molt. I feel terrible.

I know there is nothing anyone out there can do now but I knew some of you would understand my sense of sadness and yes, guilt.

 

[LarryPQ]

We chicken people understand. I am sorry for your loss.

 

[easttxchick]

So sorry about your Rosie.

 

[LauraG]

So sorry to hear that.

I'm dealing with a sick hen now and I know how hard it is when we love our little critters so much.

Thanks for posting the link to your eggbound story too and for the photos, it may help someone like me some day in the same position....

Blessings,
Laura

 

[WilczenskiFarm]

I am so sorry about Rosie! I almost cried reading your post...I found two of mine last spring, dead and no signs/symptoms and no explanation after necropsy... so you just hit a nerve
And just know this - I would have given a butt-load of money to just have been able to hold them when they passed. You did that for her... and she might have held on long enough to experience that.

 

[speckledhen]

Could have been egg peritonitis, a very common thing in high production types like RIRs. That is usually how internal laying begins. I lost three RIRs to that, plus several others, a total of nine, all hatchery stock. It's really very common and you won't know something is wrong till it's very advanced. You can try to treat the infection, if you even know it's there, with penicillin, but the problem is chronic and will keep cropping up.

 

[LeezyBeezy]

Darn! Sorry for your loss. Each time something happens, we learn though. And it helps the rest of us out here!

 

[3goodeggs]

That's sad. I am sorry you lost them.

 

[Backyard Hencam]

Perhaps there was nothing to be done to save Rosie but I can't help thinking that if I'd responded when I first noticed her change in demeanor I might have been able to do something or at least make her last days more comfortable. I worked all day in the coop and run: cleaning, raking, cleaning nest boxes. I just wanted to be close to the hens today. Thank you all for your support.

 

[Suzie]

I just read the thread and firstly I am so sorry to hear of Rosie dying - as SpeckledHen says - it could be internal laying/egg peritonitis and much the same thing happened to my Mary - it was hard to accept that there was probably nothing that could have been done for her - it was very sudden - like Rosie.
Please don't feel bad - these things happen, be comforted in the fact that at least you were with her to hold her in your loving arms as she died - yes, it's hard but she enhanced your lives and you will remember her with love.

Suzie