Lost my Lily :(

[Agnella]

I had to leave town for a night for work (DH was still home). When I got home last night, DH was in the chicken run because one of our girls was dead on the ground.
All of the others had gone to bed.

I have no idea what could have happened. There are no open wounds, signs of trauma. I checked her out a little and noticed her vent had a slight prolapse. She was out running around looking good when I left for work... She was laying on her side with her legs stretched out slightly to her backside. One leg was further back than the other, but not by much.

I've checked out all of my other girls and don't see any signs of prolapse or mites/lice. I'll see if the vet will do a test for internal parasites today with some dropping samples. I have only wormed them once last summer with Wazine 17.

Ugh...I nursed one girl back to health after a possum or raccoon attack then I lose this one to who knows what.

When the girls got up this morning they all ran to the spot that my Lily had been laying the night before.

 

[annie3001]

 

[dawg53]

Sorry for your loss. Maybe your vet can shed some light on what happened to Lily.

 

[teach1rusl]

Sorry about your Lily...

 

[speckledhen]

I lost my blue Ameraucana, Charlotte, today, too. Never had a health issue in her 4 years, but went downhill almost overnight. I'm sorry about your girl. Sometimes, they just die, mostly from laying issues, but often from kidney and liver issues, too. I've even had them die from a stroke and found another of my 5 yr old girls acting like she'd had one this morning. There are so many things it could be that sometimes, you just don't know. I realize that 5 years old is considered elderly for a hen, but I just wish one or two would live longer than that.

 

[dawg53]

Sorry for your loss as well Cynthia.

 

[Mattemma]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Agnella]

Sorry for your loss as well, Cynthia.

I am going to have a state necropsy done this afternoon to hopefully determine what the cause was. If it's something that I could have prevented, I would like to know.

Now for an unpleasant question....what do I do with her afterwards? My DH is on crutches with a broken ankle and I know that I won't be able to dig deep enough to bury her where something won't dig her up. Is it acceptable to leave her in the woods to keep the circle of life going? (let something living get nourishment?) Is that wrong?

Thanks for the kind words. This is a great community.

 

[DebbieF]

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope you find an answer, if so, please post.

 

[Hottchick]

If you're OK with it then whatever choice you make is fine. I would put her well away from where you keep your chickens. You don't want to invite predators close. When my dog killed one of my pullets, I put her in a gallon size Ziploc bag and then buried her so nothing would be tempted to dig her up.

By the way, her name was Lily too.

Sorry for your loss.