Today my last chicken was euthanized by a vet and I am feeling disturbed by her condition. I feel nauseous when I think about it and can still smell it. Her entire abdomen was off colour, swollen and covered with maggots. The abdomen wall was intact but tissue exposed. It as all a blur but when I left the vet, I was under the impression that she died from sepsis after possibly having an internal injury from a fox attack (happened last week) and the maggots were a side effect off the infection. However, after stupidly searching it, I learned about flystrike and feel horrified that she may not have been injured by the the fox but had a neglected poopy bum and died solely from flystrike. Would the vet have been able to tell the difference or was her analysis based on what I said about the fox? She mentioned that foxes can give crushing injuries to chickens. It seemed like her entire abdomen was a mess, not just one spot near the vent.
The fox attack happened last Thursday and one chicken was taken. The other I found hiding in the coop. (I only had two chickens because the 3rd died of old age a few days before… I’m having a bad month…). I did not see the attack and assumed the surviving chicken was okay. I’m sure I gave her a good inspection and didn’t see any injuries. She always seems to have a mildly poopy bum. She was moulting and I noticed a clump of poopy feathers but they came off. It wasn’t nearly as poopy as I’ve seen from other chickens.
I’ve been terribly distracted all week stressing about what to do with my single chicken…. Looking for a companion or rehoming and I feel so bad that I may have missed a treatable condition. She was not fully acting herself but I assumed it was loneliness. She was locked up more (because of the fox) and had less opportunity to dust bath. Yesterday evening she was worse, seemed depressed and didn’t want me to touch her and wasn’t as keen on free ranging like she normal is. I had made her some scrambled eggs and she didn’t eat them. So that’s when I think her condition started to deteriorate. Unfortunately, I didn’t inspect her body as I assumed it was the circumstances of being a single chicken.
I know it’s not productive to ruminate on this but I can’t stop thinking about it.
The fox attack happened last Thursday and one chicken was taken. The other I found hiding in the coop. (I only had two chickens because the 3rd died of old age a few days before… I’m having a bad month…). I did not see the attack and assumed the surviving chicken was okay. I’m sure I gave her a good inspection and didn’t see any injuries. She always seems to have a mildly poopy bum. She was moulting and I noticed a clump of poopy feathers but they came off. It wasn’t nearly as poopy as I’ve seen from other chickens.
I’ve been terribly distracted all week stressing about what to do with my single chicken…. Looking for a companion or rehoming and I feel so bad that I may have missed a treatable condition. She was not fully acting herself but I assumed it was loneliness. She was locked up more (because of the fox) and had less opportunity to dust bath. Yesterday evening she was worse, seemed depressed and didn’t want me to touch her and wasn’t as keen on free ranging like she normal is. I had made her some scrambled eggs and she didn’t eat them. So that’s when I think her condition started to deteriorate. Unfortunately, I didn’t inspect her body as I assumed it was the circumstances of being a single chicken.
I know it’s not productive to ruminate on this but I can’t stop thinking about it.
