Acute fever then death

coop.farm
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AspiringUrbaniteFarmer

AspiringUrbaniteFarmer

Chirping
8 Years
Jul 20, 2011
204
0
89
Melbourne FL
Ugh, awful title, isn't it? No one likes to see a dead chicken, unless you're not veg & it's already cooked & plated.

Anyway, this morning one of my 3 Black Copper hens didn't leave the coop to go out with the others. I checked & she was in the nesting box. I figured she was trying to lay, since she hasn't even laid yet, & left her alone.

I went back and her head was down, so I got her out & checked her over. Nothing abnormal, except she was SO DOCILE... not the usual "put me down lady... soil to scratch, bugs to eat, things to do" attitude... so I did a little research & checked her croup. It was fluid filled so I vomited her & massaged it in case it was blocked. She pooped green & yellow when I did that. Shortly after she started breathing heavily & developed a fever. I didn't take her temp, but she felt SO HOT. I stuck her in a nice open bath & brought her temp down a bit. I gave her some water with apple cider vinegar & some chick food & left her alone, in a box with lots of pine shavings & a towel over all that even to make her comfortable. I went out to run some errands & when I came back she was stiff & dead.
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We live on a creek & with all the rain we've been getting lately, the mosquitos have been brutal. We don't have anything dangerous in our yard that she could have "gotten into" so after racking my brain as to how she maybe got sick, I can only guess it was a mosquito?

Does anyone have any insight or wisdom to share? I would love to do anything & everything I can to help the other members of the flock stay healthy & not fall victim to... whatever took this hen's life in what seemed like just a few hours.

Thanks!
 
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....not a clue....just hugs. From everything I've seen on here - the green poo means she's not been able to digest any food. The fever sounds like an infection. Don't know about the mosquitos carrying anything. Have you heard anything from your local news about the mosquitos carrying anything bad right now?? Again, really not a clue here - just thinking "out loud". Wanted you to know you're not alone! I'm sure someone will come along shortly with some ideas. In the meantime, are the rest of your chickens looking ok? Might be wise to clean everything out really well and sanitize the coop.
 
I am in North Florida. We have had enough mosquitos to tote the chickens off! I don't think they had anything to do with her death. I would first suspect some sort of crop problem...maybe blockage. The green poo would suggest that she had not been able to get food past her crop to digest it.
 
I sprayed my birds with an herbal kid-freindly bug repellent just to be sure tonight. LOL! But thanks for the reassurance that it's probably not mosquito related, I couldn't think of what else it could be! Could be croup related? Could be nearly anything... it's just crazy that she died so suddenly. She laid down on her side ( I kind of placed her that way ) & just ... kind of rested until she died. Poor little girl. *sigh*

... the more I get into chickens & learn of them, the more I realize, they aren't the hardiest creatures or the best bred for survival..... bred purely for eating them and/or their eggs.
 

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