chicken choking?

[dolmige]

We had a hen who last night was running around happily eating slugs. She seemed to get her mouth slimed and was opening and closing her beak like she was gasping. While this was going on, the rooster came after her. We chased him away and I tried to clean some of the slime from her mouth. She sat for a time, then got up and ran to the other side of the shed. Immediately, the rooster was on her again. When we got him chased off again, she stayed on the ground. I picked her up and she started turning blue. She died a few minutes later. She was hatched in August, so she wasn't very old. So, did she choke on a slug or did the rooster's timing along with the slug cause her to die? She had laid an egg yesterday and seemingly had no problems before this. Any thoughts?

 

[lotzahenz]

I have no idea, but was wondering if a snail is poisonous? My mom had a chicken eating at the feeder and it had sudden death and even had food in her mouth. She was a Oct. baby. No obivious sign of trauma or disease. Hope you find an answer. Henz

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

slugs are BAD NEWS
they promote such slim the chicken choked to death
also snail, slugs, earth worms etc cause bad disease in chickens
suck as worms that will need to be gotten out of them
gape worm is one

I would say the chickens both were killed by their appetite and the contents choked them sorry

any questions email me

 

[PeeperKeeper]

O My! That is scarry! My chickens eat a hoard of worms every week! I do check for gape worm if I see them "yawning" too much. I keep a closer eye on the slugs though.
So sorry for the loss of the hen.

 

[thebroodybunch]

I also lost a chicken to slugs. She was a month and a half old leghorn. She choked on a slug. We are having so much rain in Maine that we are overrun with slugs. I don't know what to do about them and I'm worried about my other chickens that are the same age. Some of these slugs are huge! I don't want to use pesticides because I'm worried about them being tracked into the chickens coop or run. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Rebekah]

I would put slug traps around the perimeter of the coop/run. I bury two big Silo cups stacked inside each other in different locations in my garden and leave the rim at about ground level. I fill the cups with beer and the slugs consistently fall right in and die. Having the cups stacked allows me to pull the filled one out to empty and leave the other cup in the ground acting a placeholder. There are slug traps on the market and some people just use bowls, but this is much less messy. I also sprinkle DE around the perimeter of my plants and coop.