Attacked by other hens, died a week later. Injuries, sickness, or old age?

[ChickenLizard]

Hello wise forum,

I have a small mixed flock - 3 Wyandottes, 1 Jersey Giant, 1 NH Red, and 1 Partridge Rock. They are all a little over 3 years old (hatched April 2011) and they've been healthy, happy, and productive. I'm never sure which egg comes from which hen, but I think they were all laying because I would occasionally get 6 eggs in a day. This is my first flock of chickens, so I'm still pretty new at this.

About 2 weeks ago, when I was closing them in for the evening I noticed the Partridge Rock was still out in the fading light, which was odd. When I took a closer look I realized she was hurt - all her head feathers were gone and her comb was bloody. I put her in a separate cage for the night - the bleeding had stopped, she ate some pellets and scratch grains, and seemed stable.

The next day, the comb looked better and the skin on her head had scabbed over and I planned to keep her isolated until the feathers grew back. However, her behavior was off. She would sit immobile for long periods, then occasionally walk slowly to pick at some grains or the grass. As the week went by, she seemed to be eating less, she wasn't using the perch in the cage and her underside was getting dirty from not getting up to poop. I kept cleaning her up and offering food, water, and exercise, but she kept moving less and less and the food in the cage wasn't disappearing. She could stand and walk, but did so rarely and slowly. About a week after the injury, she died.

My question is this: Do you think her injuries were serious enough that she didn't recover? Or do you think she was sick from some other reason and her odd behavior caused her to be attacked by the others?

Aside from the missing head feathers and comb, I didn't see any obvious injury. Her eyes were OK, she had a full range of motion in the wings and legs, and I didn't notice any pain response from picking her up, any of her movements, etc. I thought she'd recover, until she didn't. That's what made me start to wonder if there was something else wrong before the attack (or coincident with it). Does her condition after the attack sound like anything familiar to you? Is this just how old chickens go at the end of their life? Or does that sound like some kind of parasite or other illness that might spread to the other hens?

The other girls seem OK, though perhaps losing a few more feathers than normal. There's no obvious aggression in the rest of the flock. My friends who know chickens have commented that they look good - heavy bodied and well-behaved. They have a large coop (32 square feet plus 3 nest boxes), quality food, and lots of access to the outdoors.

Thanks for any advice you can provide, particularly if there something I can do to help the other birds.

 

[Judy]

I'm sorry you lost her. It could have been the seriousness of the injuries or that she had a weakness the others sensed, as you guessed. It would have been interesting to have a necropsy performed. You might look into how this is handled in your state, through you state vet office, county extension agent, or local ag college. It's usually not expensive, and in CA at least it's free.

It doesn't sound like a disease that the others could catch, to me. If you've never wormed them, I'd certainly consider doing this for your whole flock. Valbazen hits all worm species and is easy on their system. If they happen to have a heavy load, they get sick from the GI injury, or GI infection, etc. Gove 0.5ml to each bird by mouth, repeat in 10 days, toss eggs for 21 days. Lice/mites can also be devastating or even letha if the infestation is heavy enough, but it sounds like you would have seen them if this were the case. There''s rarely an outward sign of worms unless they happen to have tapeworm, except for when they just seem sick, weight loss, pale comb, etc. in a heavy infestation.

3 years isn't that old for a chicken. Their average lifespan is probably more like 10 years. They don't usually la a lot of eggs after 3 years, but they can keep laying all their life in some cases.

 

[ChickenLizard]

Thanks Judy.

I read a bunch of other threads on deworming and I think I'd like to test them before going ahead with the drugs. If I was going to take a fecal sample to send for analysis, should I get a sample from several birds? Or can I assume that, if this is a parasite issue, that any of the remaining birds will have the same infection status?