Philly, my 5-Year-Old red sex link died yesterday evening.
On Saturday, she was completely fine, scratching around and even laid her egg as normal. She went to bed and everything was normal.
On Sunday morning however, I noticed she was a little bit lethargic and was sitting down quite a bit. She didn't lay an egg and by about 3:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon she took herself back to bed, which involves walking up some steep stairs, and rather than roosting just lay down. When I went and saw her at 5:00, she was a dead weight and couldn't stand up on her own. So I brought her in and checked her abdomen and her crop, both of which were fine. What I did notice was she had a temperature so I gave her some meloxicam and also administered an antibiotic as I assumed it would be something bacterial. The was cefalaxin - a penicillin-based antibiotic.
I kept her in overnight and in the morning she was panting a bit which I think was to control her temperature. She had a little bit to drink and she at some grapes so I got her an appointment at the vet on an emergency. However, my vet, the avian specialist, was on holiday. In the vets they put her in oxygen tank but it didn't make any difference as her panting was about temperature control. So they got me an emergency appointment with an avian specialist (allegedly) who to be fair did do a thorough investigation and agreed that it was more likely to be a systemic infection. He injected her with some meloxicam and also the injectable version of the penicillin-based antibiotic. He and the previous vet also administered subcutaneous fluids.
I took her home and we got back by about 1:00 p.m. her temperature was raging. It was at the vets 42.1 ° C but you could feel the heat coming off her. I tried to call her down as much as I could without making her cold but by 6:15 she stretched out and died.
I've never seen anything like this in all the years that I've kept chickens and I don't know what it was. I would really appreciate if somebody could give me a steer as to what it could have been based on the fact that she was absolutely fine 48 hours before she died. I should add that she never regained the ability to stand. The vet said this is probably likely due to the fever. She was alert all the way through and quite vocal. She just kept panting because of the heat and I couldn't seem to get it to reduce.
To see her perfectly well hen suddenly deteriorate in front of your eyes in more or less 24 hours is not pleasant and I keep trying to run it through my head as to what did I miss or what did we do.
Any advice would be very helpful even though I know it can't help her, but it may help a chicken in the future.
And I have to say goodbye to my little girl, who is lovely, another rescue chicken from a place where they had been badly treated. She had nearly 3 years with me and I will miss her, as I do all of them.
On Saturday, she was completely fine, scratching around and even laid her egg as normal. She went to bed and everything was normal.
On Sunday morning however, I noticed she was a little bit lethargic and was sitting down quite a bit. She didn't lay an egg and by about 3:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon she took herself back to bed, which involves walking up some steep stairs, and rather than roosting just lay down. When I went and saw her at 5:00, she was a dead weight and couldn't stand up on her own. So I brought her in and checked her abdomen and her crop, both of which were fine. What I did notice was she had a temperature so I gave her some meloxicam and also administered an antibiotic as I assumed it would be something bacterial. The was cefalaxin - a penicillin-based antibiotic.
I kept her in overnight and in the morning she was panting a bit which I think was to control her temperature. She had a little bit to drink and she at some grapes so I got her an appointment at the vet on an emergency. However, my vet, the avian specialist, was on holiday. In the vets they put her in oxygen tank but it didn't make any difference as her panting was about temperature control. So they got me an emergency appointment with an avian specialist (allegedly) who to be fair did do a thorough investigation and agreed that it was more likely to be a systemic infection. He injected her with some meloxicam and also the injectable version of the penicillin-based antibiotic. He and the previous vet also administered subcutaneous fluids.
I took her home and we got back by about 1:00 p.m. her temperature was raging. It was at the vets 42.1 ° C but you could feel the heat coming off her. I tried to call her down as much as I could without making her cold but by 6:15 she stretched out and died.
I've never seen anything like this in all the years that I've kept chickens and I don't know what it was. I would really appreciate if somebody could give me a steer as to what it could have been based on the fact that she was absolutely fine 48 hours before she died. I should add that she never regained the ability to stand. The vet said this is probably likely due to the fever. She was alert all the way through and quite vocal. She just kept panting because of the heat and I couldn't seem to get it to reduce.
To see her perfectly well hen suddenly deteriorate in front of your eyes in more or less 24 hours is not pleasant and I keep trying to run it through my head as to what did I miss or what did we do.
Any advice would be very helpful even though I know it can't help her, but it may help a chicken in the future.
And I have to say goodbye to my little girl, who is lovely, another rescue chicken from a place where they had been badly treated. She had nearly 3 years with me and I will miss her, as I do all of them.
