I made a mistake

[Folly's place]

I feed Flock Raiser, have oyster shell separately out there, and my birds free range on my farm. They get a tiny amount of scratch occasionally, and an occasional kitchen scrap. I have heritage type birds too, and haven't had issues with very fat ex-layers, at least not on post-mortem exams. Reproductive issues in older birds, and one family of birds with crop issues.
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

The Wyandottes I've kept have done pretty well; I now have two splash BLR's that are four years old, and have both raised chicks more than once. Nice hens!
Mary

 

[micstrachan]

I’m so sorry for your loss and that you feel guilty about it. In reality, I am certain you saved her some suffering down the road.

 

[Bonniebooboo]

I have/had 2 California white hens. 5 1/2 years old. I noticed one getting a puffy look to abdomen, she hadn't laid an egg in about a month. she then started hanging back from the group and being lethargic. I decided to check her and felt something not right inside. she wasn't fat, I decided to put her down. she did have internal laying and several yolks stuck together. she also had many cysts all over inside. The second California white, looked very good, same age starting molt, I picked her up and thought hum, she feels heavy, but again she hasn't laid an egg in the last 2 months. abdomen feeling puffy, full, but not watery, acting and eating fine. couldn't feel anything wrong in vent, I went ahead and processed her Saturday, and she is the fattest chicken I have ever done. could not believe all the fat inside her abdomen ,on her back etc. she had NO growths and her liver is just fine. Her ovary had no developing yolks, so she was done with her laying. she went to noodle camp. She is not wasted. I am sad that I had to do it, but I don't regret it. They ate layer crumbles and free ranged most of the day. She must have been a little pig. AS you can see, I made the same call on 2 chickens a couple months apart, different results. You can't always know. I did know the first would not make it much longer due to actions , the second, I had to find out why she was getting so firm/puffy back there before she acted sick. So that is what I did. I don't know if certain breeds are more prone to getting to fat, or just individuals being pigs and coming to the end of their laying life.
Wish you the best and don't feel to bad for too long. Constant Learning comes with the territory.

 

[pdxmelissa]

I have/had 2 California white hens. 5 1/2 years old. I noticed one getting a puffy look to abdomen, she hadn't laid an egg in about a month. she then started hanging back from the group and being lethargic. I decided to check her and felt something not right inside. she wasn't fat, I decided to put her down. she did have internal laying and several yolks stuck together. she also had many cysts all over inside. The second California white, looked very good, same age starting molt, I picked her up and thought hum, she feels heavy, but again she hasn't laid an egg in the last 2 months. abdomen feeling puffy, full, but not watery, acting and eating fine. couldn't feel anything wrong in vent, I went ahead and processed her Saturday, and she is the fattest chicken I have ever done. could not believe all the fat inside her abdomen ,on her back etc. she had NO growths and her liver is just fine. Her ovary had no developing yolks, so she was done with her laying. she went to noodle camp. She is not wasted. I am sad that I had to do it, but I don't regret it. They ate layer crumbles and free ranged most of the day. She must have been a little pig. AS you can see, I made the same call on 2 chickens a couple months apart, different results. You can't always know. I did know the first would not make it much longer due to actions , the second, I had to find out why she was getting so firm/puffy back there before she acted sick. So that is what I did. I don't know if certain breeds are more prone to getting to fat, or just individuals being pigs and coming to the end of their laying life.
Wish you the best and don't feel to bad for too long. Constant Learning comes with the territory.

I never thought someone would have gone through the exact same situation! Makes me feel less alone, that I'm not the only one who has tried to do the right thing and been wrong. Or at least, miscalculated.

 

[Bonniebooboo]

I never thought someone would have gone through the exact same situation! Makes me feel less alone, that I'm not the only one who has tried to do the right thing and been wrong. Or at least, miscalculated.

It is amazing what one goes through. The longer I have chickens the more things I have experienced. you just never know. I am not glad we had to go through it, but it is comforting to know we are not alone. I have had things happen that I didn't have a name for until I got on this site. There have been things I never heard of that have happened and now I have a name for them. I never ever had an impacted or sour crop in 30 years of having chickens, this summer I have had 3. tried all the things I could read on here about treating. still lost 2 and am still treating one. made crop bras and they do help once you get the impact to pass if you can. thought I had this girl healed. crop all down and eating good for 2 full weeks after treatment and removing crop bra. now she is gassed up again and have been treating for past week again, and using crop bra. If she eats small amounts, like a tablespoon at a time, she does ok, but more and she seems slow to digest and gasses up again. she is 3 1/2 months old and trying to grow, and getting thinner. I am sad that I will likely lose her too. I wanted the black copper marans, but I don't think she will last a lot longer at this rate. I am going to have to make another decision I don't want to do.
Lots of hugs to you and wish you all the best from here on out.