My oldest hen Mad-Eye is dead 
. Actually she wasn't that old - about two and a half years. Last week I noticed that she was coughing a lot and making a sort of snarling noise sometimes during breathing. She was not really gaping. She didn't have any nasal discharge or eye discharge and was running around as normal. She also didn't look thin or anything. I was planning to isolate her anyway because of the cough. Then she vanished on Thursday. My chickens have a habit of vanishing here and there during free ranging and sometimes even break out of their run so I didn't worry at first, they always turned up again after a day or two. Mad-Eye didn't turn up and I was beginning to think that some predator made a meal of her. Over the weekend I didn't collect eggs for some reason. This morning I did and thought that the coop was a lot stinkier than usual and there were more flies. When I picked up the last egg, I saw something black sticking out, half hidden from view by a nesting box. It was Mad-Eye and well, she wasn't looking her best after 4 days in hot summer weather. 
As I could barely keep my stomach content down and my glasses flew off my nose from the retching, I couldn't really examine her to look for injuries or other reasons of death. Thinking of the cough and the snarling, could it have been gapeworm? I thought only younger chickens got that. I've got baby chicks in the same coop right now - they seem okay and the rest of the flock as well.
Bye-bye Mad-Eye. This is the last photo I ever took of her...
. Actually she wasn't that old - about two and a half years. Last week I noticed that she was coughing a lot and making a sort of snarling noise sometimes during breathing. She was not really gaping. She didn't have any nasal discharge or eye discharge and was running around as normal. She also didn't look thin or anything. I was planning to isolate her anyway because of the cough. Then she vanished on Thursday. My chickens have a habit of vanishing here and there during free ranging and sometimes even break out of their run so I didn't worry at first, they always turned up again after a day or two. Mad-Eye didn't turn up and I was beginning to think that some predator made a meal of her. Over the weekend I didn't collect eggs for some reason. This morning I did and thought that the coop was a lot stinkier than usual and there were more flies. When I picked up the last egg, I saw something black sticking out, half hidden from view by a nesting box. It was Mad-Eye and well, she wasn't looking her best after 4 days in hot summer weather. As I could barely keep my stomach content down and my glasses flew off my nose from the retching, I couldn't really examine her to look for injuries or other reasons of death. Thinking of the cough and the snarling, could it have been gapeworm? I thought only younger chickens got that. I've got baby chicks in the same coop right now - they seem okay and the rest of the flock as well.
Bye-bye Mad-Eye. This is the last photo I ever took of her...
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