I have a question?

[Barnyard]

I have a BLRW splash hen that started acting a little off 2 day's ago. She was just standing around and she wouldn't even come for corn so I knew she wasn't feeling well. I brought her in the house and put her in a dog crate. Started giving here vitamins and electrolyts. She showed no signs of illness. No runny nose, no sneezing, no coughing, nothing. I checked her vent and her crop and both seemed fine to me. Well I went to check on her this morning and she died sometime during the night. Any idea what could kill a chicken so quick? I am at a total loss and I am worried about my other BLRW and the silkies that are in a pen right beside there's.

 

[katrinag]

Has is been really cold? Egg bound? Anything out of the blue?

 

[Barnyard]

It has been pretty cold the last couple of day's, but not cold enough to do any harm. I don't believe she was egg bound. She was at point of lay, but hadn't started yet.

That is what has me so puzzled. She was fine one minute and then she acted like she felt bad ,but no signs of anything wrong and then dead this morning....

 

[Suellyn]

Sorry about your hen

It is sooooooooooo hard to say, honestly without a necropsy it will probably always be a mystery (and even WITH necropsy sometimes even a Vet comes up with "don't know").

Birds can be so tough to diagnose, they "mask" symptoms until they just can't anymore, and by that time they are ofen critically ill/dying! She may have been ill/injured for a while but hid it until it was too late. ??

I would think that with most contagious diseases there would have been SOME other symptoms; diarrhea, sniffles, wheezing, ataxia... ?? So hopefully was an internal "glitch", something genetic or malfunctioned. I'm sure you will keep an eye on your other birds, I would think some of them would show symptoms within a day or two of her if it's contagious & they were going to be impacted.

Sorry this wasn't very specific, just don't know...

 

[Barnyard]

Thanks Suellyn, you sure know how to ease someone's mind

I was thinking the same thing, that if it was something contagious she would have showed symptoms. The only thing that I noticed with her was that her poo was kinda yellow, but not runny or anything, just yellow. Everybody else seems to be doing fine. I will continue to watch them though.

 

[nzpouter]

poison?

 

[speckledhen]

I lost a beautiful point of lay Delaware girl at 24 weeks old. She was the picture of health. The day before, she was sitting down, very still and I realized that her heart was racing to beat the band. The next day, she came out with the others, and when we came back from errands, I found her dead in the coop by the door, with blood around her mouth. We opened her up and found lots of dark arterial blood and one chamber of the heart deflated--it basically blew up. She had been a bit behind her sister in size her whole life and apparently had a heart defect. Coming into lay was too much for her. Maybe yours had a similar issue.

 

[Barnyard]

Quote:
I do not think it was poison. I never let them out of there pen and there is nothing in there for them to get into.

 

[Barnyard]

Quote:
I am sorry Cyn. I picked my girl up and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. She did feel a little on the thin side though. I am really clueless. I am really not liking this part of having chickens

 

[Suellyn]

Actually, when you said something about yellow poo, the first thing I thought of was her liver

... Yellow often means jaundice, and genetic liver defects are usually pretty deadly. ????? That's just a wild guess that popped into my head, have seen it in other animals tho.

And like speckledhen said, coming into point of lay could certainly bring any dormant weaknesses to the forefront, as the body "geared up" for egg production.

Sorry for both of your losses, yeah, that's the BAD part of having/caring for animals...