Happy New Year everyone!
Yesterday morning when I let my chickens out, I noticed one of my 2 layers not acting herself. "Little Mama" is what I called her. She and "Big Mama" are a pair of hens that are a few months older than my chicks that I acquired as day olds in August. Big Mama and Little Mama always came running expecting me to give their favorite treat, meal worms. Yesterday, Little Mama came out of the coop with the rest, but just stood around. She'd occasionally eat a few blades of grass, but would mainly stay hidden either under the trailer or under the truck. In the afternoon I put them all back in the coop and approached Little Mama. She's never let me handle her. This time, I picked her up, rubbed on her, turned her on her side to look her over, basically inspecting her all over. When I'd turn her on her side, she'd just lay there. When I put her upright, she'd just sit there. Suddenly Big Mama pecked her hard on the head (she's never done that, at least that I've seen) so I knew the coop wouldn't be safe for her. I brought her in the garage and put her in a "hospital" cage. I felt her abdomen, but didn't find anything unusual. I did notice her crop was empty. I filled the fount with ACV water, and flock raiser crumbles. I gave her a couple of drops of Poly-vi-sol by dropper (she hated that). I left the garage light on in hopes that she'd eat something and perk up. She just sat there. I found no mites, lice, her comb was still red. However she stopped laying about a week ago. She wasn't sneezing, wheezing, coughing or anything else. I don't know what her poop looked like because I never caught her in the act while outside, and she never did poop while in the hospital cage. Late at night I finally turned the garage light off so she could sleep. I was going to continue to check her out this morning. I got up this morning, turned the garage light on, and she was still sitting where she was last night. I decided I'd scramble an egg up for her this morning while cooking breakfast for the family, give her time to eat it while we ate breakfast. After breakfast I was going to bring her inside and put her in a tub of warm water to sit in for awhile to see if she was possibly eggbound. We ate breakfast, and I immediately went to the garage to get the plastic tub and Little Mama. Unfortunately she'd passed away in that 20 or so minutes. Since I couldn't find anything really wrong with her as far as lice, mites, etc., is it possible for a hen to die if they are eggbound? I feel so bad that I couldn't figure it out in time!!
Yesterday morning when I let my chickens out, I noticed one of my 2 layers not acting herself. "Little Mama" is what I called her. She and "Big Mama" are a pair of hens that are a few months older than my chicks that I acquired as day olds in August. Big Mama and Little Mama always came running expecting me to give their favorite treat, meal worms. Yesterday, Little Mama came out of the coop with the rest, but just stood around. She'd occasionally eat a few blades of grass, but would mainly stay hidden either under the trailer or under the truck. In the afternoon I put them all back in the coop and approached Little Mama. She's never let me handle her. This time, I picked her up, rubbed on her, turned her on her side to look her over, basically inspecting her all over. When I'd turn her on her side, she'd just lay there. When I put her upright, she'd just sit there. Suddenly Big Mama pecked her hard on the head (she's never done that, at least that I've seen) so I knew the coop wouldn't be safe for her. I brought her in the garage and put her in a "hospital" cage. I felt her abdomen, but didn't find anything unusual. I did notice her crop was empty. I filled the fount with ACV water, and flock raiser crumbles. I gave her a couple of drops of Poly-vi-sol by dropper (she hated that). I left the garage light on in hopes that she'd eat something and perk up. She just sat there. I found no mites, lice, her comb was still red. However she stopped laying about a week ago. She wasn't sneezing, wheezing, coughing or anything else. I don't know what her poop looked like because I never caught her in the act while outside, and she never did poop while in the hospital cage. Late at night I finally turned the garage light off so she could sleep. I was going to continue to check her out this morning. I got up this morning, turned the garage light on, and she was still sitting where she was last night. I decided I'd scramble an egg up for her this morning while cooking breakfast for the family, give her time to eat it while we ate breakfast. After breakfast I was going to bring her inside and put her in a tub of warm water to sit in for awhile to see if she was possibly eggbound. We ate breakfast, and I immediately went to the garage to get the plastic tub and Little Mama. Unfortunately she'd passed away in that 20 or so minutes. Since I couldn't find anything really wrong with her as far as lice, mites, etc., is it possible for a hen to die if they are eggbound? I feel so bad that I couldn't figure it out in time!!
