I lost my first chicken - harder to accept then i thought!

[Inkheart]

Sad news on my end- when i left for work yesterday i cared for the girls of course - and Patsy - my favorite Del hen looked kinda lethargic and had "messed" herslef all down her back side - but was foraging - but not her usual perky self. So i thought i will take a look at her when i get home. I am not even opening up the barn cause it is like 4 degrees here these days. Well i got home they came running but no Patsy. I looke over in the nest area under the winding staircase and there she was - gone. Ok i am tearing up typing this ...she was my first - my favorite and the first to give me an egg. I remember the day i brought them home they were in the field and she came up to the fence and cocked her head and almost did a bow to me - i will never forget that. She was such a girly girl and just moved with such grace. I am mystified - nothing has changed -diet - nothing - what the heck happened? I have been told to expect this when raising chickens but oddly that doesnt make it feel any better . Urrgghh stinks - sorry for whining but where else would someone understand? lol

 

[Judy]

Sorry for your loss. You're right, many on here will understand well -- and it has also happened to many of us, including me.

We could make lots of guesses as to the cause. You didn't mention age and that has some bearing on the guesses. In the end, though, they are just that, guesses. Since no one else is sick, though, you can probably safely assume it was something internal that you couldn't have done anything about anyway, maybe related to egg laying, maybe heart or a tumor, etc., etc.

Again, sorry.

 

[Birdcrazy]

So very sorry to hear that

its so sad losing a pet...
I recently lost my first duck

it was very hard, I couldn't believe how bad I was taking it, so I know completely how you feel - everyone at home would always ask why I was crying over a duck.
I'm clueless on why your chicken passed away, my chicken was doing that a few days ago... and we went to have a look at her in the afternoon and she was back to normal

she was kind of tired looking too. Was odd.

Hope you feel better and very sorry

 

[Inkheart]

Quote:
Thank you so much - honestly she was seven months old - laying like a champion - healthy curious and an incurable forager - i fear somehow she foraged the wrong thing? But for the life of me i have no clue what it would have been -

 

[annie3001]

so sorry for your loss.

...your sweet girl sounds like one of mine. they touch your heart, they are someone special. we understand here.

 

[SilkieTime]

I know it is very hard

 

[gryeyes]

My first loss from something other than my dachshund (who no longer kills chickens after a LOT of work on my part) was a lovely, lavender Cochin who was lethargic shortly after she started laying. She laid about six eggs, then stopped for a few days. I thought, she's new, she's just getting warmed up, so to speak. But that night, I found her dead. Turns out she was apparently egg-bound and I didn't know it.

I was so sad, just heart-broken. Over a chicken.... Ellen. Yeah.... Took it really hard. And it was no easier when my Matilda got sick, I nursed her for a couple of weeks, but she eventually died.

It IS hard.

 

[gritsar]