Lost my first hen tonight....Prolapsed?

[vlflower]

My girls are just turning 1 in a couple of weeks. We have 6 RIR & 6 SLW. All of them have been doing great so far.

My daughter let the girls out this morning and all was fine. We went up tonight to feed them and put them in the coop for the night and found one of my RIR dead in the run. She was laying on her back and had been dead for a couple of hours it seems.

We were gone all day so unfortunately, I wasn't around to see if there was anything going on differently with them. She did not have any open wounds or indications of attack. The rest of my girls were fine.

When I took her out of the run and could look her over better, there was a mass that was bloody that seemed to be coming out of her vent area. I've been reading about the prolapsed vents here and I have a feeling that it may be what happened.

I'm kindof feeling like a bad mom though, cause it seems like everyone else has been able to help their girls and save them. Should I have seen this sooner? There haven't been any bloody eggs and everyone has been acting as crazy as usual.

Any suggestions....I loaned out my Chicken Book to a friend otherwise I'd be reading up there too!

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[KFaye]

I am so sorry for your loss! I sympathize about feeling like a bad mom but we all lose some of our girls no matter how hard we try. I am currently trying to save one of mine that with proper care and vigilence would probably not have been ill. And we think we have it all covered! I am chalking it up to a painful learning experience a hard lesson though. Good luck with your flock, they are lucky to have a "mom" who cares.

 

[vlflower]

Thank you! Raising chickens was all new to me! Got it in my head last year and took the plunge after a lot of begging LOL!

Just want to make sure this isn't something that the others will "catch" so to speak. Told my hubby last night he has to get my book back! Don't like not being able to get my hands on it when something comes up.

Anybody else with a thought?