Help!! my barred rock is super sick!!!

[Chickie Momma]

My chicken didnt make it. I should have come here for advice. She had the same symptoms, but her gizzard was distended when I felt it and some really awful smelling air came out. Her poops were very small and liquid white/yellow. I don't know what happened to her, but the rest of the girls are fine. I am so paranoid now that I check them every couple of hours. I am so sad Betsy suffered and I didnt know what was happening. I want Bells to get better!!! And I want to learn whats going on too

 

[chicksurreal]

i'm too new to chicken keeping to be of any help but I hope your poor sweet girl gets better. Sorry your year had to start off like this.

 

[chicksurreal]

My chicken didnt make it. I should have come here for advice. She had the same symptoms, but her gizzard was distended when I felt it and some really awful smelling air came out. Her poops were very small and liquid white/yellow. I don't know what happened to her, but the rest of the girls are fine. I am so paranoid now that I check them every couple of hours. I am so sad Betsy suffered and I didnt know what was happening. I want Bells to get better!!! And I want to learn whats going on too

Sorry to hear this. it's very sad to lose them, especially hard when there is no known reason.

 

[hensintheHOUse]

I am so sorry for your loss, too. She couldn't poop for so long which make me think that she must have had a blockage inside.. as like eggcessive said.

One of my sick chicken had the same symptom when she was really ill. She couldn't poop for hours.. I was really worried, too.
May be internal layer/ egg yolk peritonitis, or egg bound.


Mine has internal layer/ egg yolk peritonitis. Her abdomen which means between her legs gets swollen and big when I stopped giving her antibiotics. I tried penicillin at first and it worked, then next time it didn't.. Baytril is working for her now.

I am not sore if she had the same problem like mine..but it is possible.

 

[Chickie Momma]

I really appreciate all the support and input here. I am gonna do my own necropsy here and take pics for the vet. Along with my report of the illness he ahould be able to put 2 and 2 together. I was in FFA in high school so I know how to take the chicken apart, but we didnt do laying hens. Now I wish we had!

 

[pwand]

What do you do for an impacted gizzard? I found impacted crop online? Would oil help with that? Oy... Its so hard to figure anything out with these chickens! We had a broody hen last year we thought we were going to loose. We didn't realize she was just mega, mega broody (loosing so much weight too). Took her to the vet and $250 later, learned only that she had a small screw in her crop. But, she got better quickly after some cold dunks, and a few nights of isolation. I'm so attached to these girls.. We have 2 cats, 1 dog and 8 hens, and I love them all to death

How is your hen making out?

 

[hensintheHOUse]

I really appreciate all the support and input here. I am gonna do my own necropsy here and take pics for the vet. Along with my report of the illness he ahould be able to put 2 and 2 together. I was in FFA in high school so I know how to take the chicken apart, but we didnt do laying hens. Now I wish we had!

It will be good to found out why she suffered for the rest of your chickens.. That is really sad to hear your loss though..
Cheers,

 

[Chickie Momma]

Thanks Hens. I just want to keep my small flock healthy now. Spoil them as I may

 

[sunshineyarns]

Hi All -- Thank you for checking in on us. Its been a horrifying start to the New Year for sure. Bells passed late last night.. At about 8pm, she took a tiny bit of water and we did a warm bath with her. We got her all warm and cozy and then kept on trying to give her liquids. She was refusing at that point, and barely awake/alive. We brought her into our room and I tried once more at 11pm. When my baby woke up to nurse at 12:15am or so, my husband went in to try to feed her and she had passed. I was up the rest of the night crying.

Today, we dug an extremely deep hole outside, and buried her. We live on a 2 acre piece of land, and she overlooks the run/coop and her favorite hillside to free range. I'm just such a mess and hope that you all understand. These were our pets, and its heartbreaking to us to loose her. We feel so, so horrible that this went unnoticed. From now on, we are picking up every bird every day or so and checking them out. In the summer months, we spend so much more time out with them and would have never NOT caught this. But with it being cold, and dark so early, we don't get outside much to hang with them during the day. I think she snuck by my husbands radar in that she was coming out in the mornings until yesterday, and probably was just going back in and not eating. At night when he went to collect eggs they would all be in the coop, and she has recently been hanging out/sleeping in the nesting boxes. Sometimes they all do that, but Bells never had. I wish my husband looked into this more, but he didn't, and feels so bad about it. She weighed hardly anything when we got to her yesterday. I'm just greiving so, thinking about her and hoping she didn't suffer. She was just such a sweet girl and we won't ever forget her.

Thank you all so much for the helpful advice. Who knows what happened.. I didn't have the courage to dig into finding out. All of our other chickens are super healthy and fine. So, I'm assuming it was an egg issue, a blockage of some sort or an infection.

This was our first chicken loss. I'm proud that we have been able to give them all a safe and loving home here in the Colorado foothills.

 

[Chickie Momma]

So sorry for your loss. Sounds like Bells and Betsy may have had the same kind of problem. I will post when I do the necropsy. I feel like I owe Betsy and the other girls that much. I miss my girl so much too!