Heat stoke? Dead chicken

[jelyseb]

One of our original chickens from 2 years ago when we first began our backyard flock was found dead last night. She was a white Cochin and we are all so sad. It was 100 yesterday but they have lots of access to shade, 2 waterers which I put ice in yesterday and a fan.

I don't know what else I could have done. Now we are afraid for the rest of the flock. Any suggestions?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

One of our original chickens from 2 years ago when we first began our backyard flock was found dead last night. She was a white Cochin and we are all so sad. It was 100 yesterday but they have lots of access to shade, 2 waterers which I put ice in yesterday and a fan.

I don't know what else I could have done. Now we are afraid for the rest of the flock. Any suggestions?

I'm sorry for your loss.

It sounds like you are doing all you can. With temps that high, unfortunately heat stroke and death can happen.

If you do see any of your chickens in distress from heat, try to move them to a cooler area and dip their legs, feet and lower body slowly into a cool (not cold) bucket/tub of water. This will help lower their temperature some. It may take a few days to recover from heat stroke so they really need to be separated and kept cooler. Provide some electrolytes for the first day - hydration first, then offer some wet feed and some watery fruit/veggies like watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber.

Some signs of overheating - panting, lethargy, wings spread out, stumbling, etc.

I hope this was just isolated for you, Cochins are beautiful, but all those fluffy feathers and the feathered feet, I would assume they may suffer a bit more in heat than non-feathered footed breeds.

Good luck and let us know how your flock is getting along.

 

[Pork Pie]

You have some great advice from Wyorp, but thought that you may wish to have a read through this thread, if you have not already done so - https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/788391/keeping-chickens-cool-in-summer-heat

I agree that you have been done a lot to try and help your chickens deal with the heat - just maybe the thread has one little nugget of info that can help you out.

CT