Hello,
I had three 7 month old chickens that I raised together, and my biggest chicken, Big Red, just passed yesterday very suddenly.
A couple of nights ago I heard the chickens being very noisy around 11:00pm which I thought was odd, when I ran down to the coop, Big Red was lying on the ground and looked dead. I put her inside for the night and saw that all her feathers on her chest had been ripped out. She had a hard time standing at first (curling her toes) but after maybe 15 minutes she's was fine, standing & breathing normally. I kept her inside until noon the next day, she was eating, drinking and still laid an egg that morning.
I let all 3 of them range for the day & inspected the coop, nothing got in. Around dusk she was attacked again by my Delaware chicken (the dominant one) and looked as if she was almost dead again. I put her inside and she wasn't doing well at all. She couldn't walk, was breathing very heavy and when my husband tried touching her she rolled around on the ground eventually lying on her back with her feet up. She was still breathing, so I put her back upright and she laid on the ground breathing heavy with her eyes closed. She never moved from that spot & passed away the next day. Do you think she had Mareks disease? I'm at a loss & confused how this happened. It was heartbreaking to watch. Thank you.
I had three 7 month old chickens that I raised together, and my biggest chicken, Big Red, just passed yesterday very suddenly.
A couple of nights ago I heard the chickens being very noisy around 11:00pm which I thought was odd, when I ran down to the coop, Big Red was lying on the ground and looked dead. I put her inside for the night and saw that all her feathers on her chest had been ripped out. She had a hard time standing at first (curling her toes) but after maybe 15 minutes she's was fine, standing & breathing normally. I kept her inside until noon the next day, she was eating, drinking and still laid an egg that morning.
I let all 3 of them range for the day & inspected the coop, nothing got in. Around dusk she was attacked again by my Delaware chicken (the dominant one) and looked as if she was almost dead again. I put her inside and she wasn't doing well at all. She couldn't walk, was breathing very heavy and when my husband tried touching her she rolled around on the ground eventually lying on her back with her feet up. She was still breathing, so I put her back upright and she laid on the ground breathing heavy with her eyes closed. She never moved from that spot & passed away the next day. Do you think she had Mareks disease? I'm at a loss & confused how this happened. It was heartbreaking to watch. Thank you.
