- Nov 12, 2008
- 2
- 6
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My family and I returned from 3 weeks in Greece and learned from the "very experienced" petsitter I had hired that one of my hens had died very quickly, with "no apparent illness or strange behavior" This woman had taken 'Peggy' to my vet on discovering her dead in the hutch in the morning, and the vet had kept the body in his freezer for me. I was horrified on opening the bag containing Peggy's body, to find a huge mass of maggots at the base of her vent area .Indeed, a hole an inch wide allowed me to look into the body cavity, the tissue of her rear being completely gone! I think she had a condition called "fly strike" sometimes found in rabbits and sheep, wherein filth flies lay their eggs in manure or a wound, hidden by the fluff of feathers or wool, and the maggots hatch and begin eating into the animal. A google search found some poultry keepers have found this condition on birds they kept who had a "messy bottom" condition, and found live birds being invaded by active colonies of maggots. The birds did not exhibit any abnormal behavioral symptoms, even when quite infected!!
Please, this is a horrible way to die and so preventable. My little Domonique was a dear lap hen, past laying age, and sometimes still passed a poorly formed/shelled egg. I would sometimes find the residue of this egg remnant protruding from her vent, pull it out, and give her a good hosing with the sprayer wand at the kitchen sink. I do not think the caretaker I hired was observant, for Peggy must have had this invasion for at least a few days before she expired. Since Peggy had to be lifted into the hutch at night (she had only one good leg, which was over-developed and strong, but precluded such a high jump into the hutch) I can not imagine how the woman could have picked her up with all those maggots and failed to notice SOMETHING!!
Any birds in a flock which may have a tendency for "poopy bottom or a hen that has had diarrhea as a result of sickness needs close attention to the vent area, cleaning thoroughly with warm water and drying with a towel. Needless to say, this petsitter will not be on my list anymore. She also failed to secure my other hens in the henhouse each night as I discovered on the night we returned and found them roosting in the trees in my yard. I spent 90 minutes rounding them up in the dark with a flashlight, and on calling her the next morning to find out why she didn't follow my EXPLICIT instructions,, she blithely said "oh, it was so hot in the henhouse, they were in the trees!"
I suspect this happened more than once, as each evening they are still trying to roost in the trees and I think they got habituated. This has never happened before. It has been a nerve-wracking and sad time---one of my house bunnies also expired in somewhat mysterious circumstances during this time away.
Word to the wise, be VERY CAREFUL of people who say "don't worry! Everything will be fine!" and yet looking back, I now detect that I did not pay attention to a certain arrogance of comment and seeming lack of close attention when we walked through the daily routine with the petsitter. I had prepared EVERYTHING to be carefully laid out and clear, both written and verbal, and she still gravely messed it up.
Susan Rudnicki Manhattan Beach CA
Please, this is a horrible way to die and so preventable. My little Domonique was a dear lap hen, past laying age, and sometimes still passed a poorly formed/shelled egg. I would sometimes find the residue of this egg remnant protruding from her vent, pull it out, and give her a good hosing with the sprayer wand at the kitchen sink. I do not think the caretaker I hired was observant, for Peggy must have had this invasion for at least a few days before she expired. Since Peggy had to be lifted into the hutch at night (she had only one good leg, which was over-developed and strong, but precluded such a high jump into the hutch) I can not imagine how the woman could have picked her up with all those maggots and failed to notice SOMETHING!!
Any birds in a flock which may have a tendency for "poopy bottom or a hen that has had diarrhea as a result of sickness needs close attention to the vent area, cleaning thoroughly with warm water and drying with a towel. Needless to say, this petsitter will not be on my list anymore. She also failed to secure my other hens in the henhouse each night as I discovered on the night we returned and found them roosting in the trees in my yard. I spent 90 minutes rounding them up in the dark with a flashlight, and on calling her the next morning to find out why she didn't follow my EXPLICIT instructions,, she blithely said "oh, it was so hot in the henhouse, they were in the trees!"
I suspect this happened more than once, as each evening they are still trying to roost in the trees and I think they got habituated. This has never happened before. It has been a nerve-wracking and sad time---one of my house bunnies also expired in somewhat mysterious circumstances during this time away.
Word to the wise, be VERY CAREFUL of people who say "don't worry! Everything will be fine!" and yet looking back, I now detect that I did not pay attention to a certain arrogance of comment and seeming lack of close attention when we walked through the daily routine with the petsitter. I had prepared EVERYTHING to be carefully laid out and clear, both written and verbal, and she still gravely messed it up.
Susan Rudnicki Manhattan Beach CA
