I know the only way to know for sure is to do an autopsy, but I just can't bring myself to do that. We found our cream legbar, Skye, dead in our coop tonight. I'm absolutely devastated and she was our little girls' special pet. We spent the whole afternoon outside yesterday and she was fine. Eating, active, and even held by my girls. The reason I think egg bound is that one of our green egg layers (we only have two, one had eggs slightly larger than the other) stopped laying about a week and a half ago. I assumed it was our blue Ameraucana because she's been acting like a rooster lately (we don't have one) and I thought it was hormone changes. When we found Skye, her vent was open and bloody inside. I feel terrible...and we haven't told my girls yet. I feel like I should have known once the larger green eggs stopped coming, but she showed literally none of the signs and had none of the risk factors (other than being just under 1 year). If she was fluffed up and hiding it happened today while I was at work. When they were chicks I even researched how to treat an egg bound hen. It's been such a crazy week (my son had his appendix out Wednesday) that I just didn't investigate like I should have.
I guess I'm looking for reassurance that this just happens sometimes? It would be bad enough if it was any of our hens since we've had them all since they were a day old, but Skye quickly became the favorite. Such a sweet hen...
I guess I'm looking for reassurance that this just happens sometimes? It would be bad enough if it was any of our hens since we've had them all since they were a day old, but Skye quickly became the favorite. Such a sweet hen...
It does happen, sorry for you loss. Harder when it's "the" favorite/special one.
