Lost a pullet - how to act faster?

[SourRoses]

We lost a beautiful Orpington pullet today. We noticed she looked poorly when she came out of the coop this morning.
She was finding spots to lay, away from the others, then one of the cockerels tried to mount her. We shooed him away, thinking "maybe the boy was bothering her too much in the coop after dawn", "maybe she is working on her first egg?".

So, we kept an eye on her, and she continued to show symptoms. We were still deliberating what to do a few hours later when she passed.
I feel bad about those hours, like I should have pounced and done something. I don't excel at quick decisiveness, it takes me a while, and that doesn't seem compatible with emergency care.


- 3.5 months old, English Orpington.
- She parked herself right by the water and was drinking a lot.
- Her comb seemed to have taken on a darker tinge.
- Her under fluff was moving in and out as if her butt was heaving.
- Her vent was clean. She was vocally distressed when I held her still to check it. She was always calm with handling before.
- We hadn't witnessed any previous mating behaviors. Some of her back feathers were littering the coop.
- No sign of injuries or any blood.
- Her crop felt normal. She wasn't eating.
- She looked fine every other day, eating, and active in the flock. Constant shadow of our cockerel, and a large size herself, no one bullied her.
- Temperatures have been lower this week than before. It didn't get above 90 today and they seemed to be enjoying the better weather. No one was panting, she wasn't panting.
- Feed is 20% Grower. No one in that juvenile flock seems old enough to lay, so I didn't have any Oyster shell out for them.

 

[Eggcessive]

I’m very sorry for your loss. Do you still have her body available to send it to your state vet for a necropsy in Kissimmee? If so, keep it cool, not frozen. That is the best way to get a diagnosis. It may have been heart or other organ failure, but there could be a lot of possibilities. Dehydration or being kept from food and water are also possibilities. Here is a list of state vets to contact if you want a necropsy:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[azygous]

That's just so tragic. I have some pullets her age and I understand how grief stricken you must be.

Unfortunately, we can't know what killed her without a necropsy. If you are of a mind to get some answers, you can cut her open and see what you can find. Sometimes the answer hits you right over the head, it's so obvious, such as internal laying or an enlarged liver or tumors swimming around in abdominal fluid.

Or she could have gotten into some anaerobic bacterial digging around. That can kill in less than 24 hours, hardly time to do anything to help.