I bought a hen at the flea market Saturday. I've had her under quarantine since we got her and she has been fine. I took her kennel (her only real source of shade, other than tall grass) to pick up some more hens and got back and she was laying in the grass, unmoving. She's drooling mucusy slobber, her head is dangling, her eyes are closed. I took her in and cooled her off. She's laying on the concrete floor in the air conditioning with an icepack next to her. Did she over heat? Is she sick? I feel so horrible. If she over heated then this is all my fault. I took her shade and didn't think to provide her with more.
I'm dropper feeding her some electrolytes, but she could die at any moment. Her legs were kinda trembling when I picked her up.
I'm keeping her indoors for a bit longer so she can really cool off. It looks like we caught her just in time. She almost died. Her breathing got shallower and shallower. She closed her eyes and just laid there. You couldn't even see her breathe. I thought she was dead couple times. You could barely feel her breath if you put you hand on her. I'm do glad to see her up. I just knew that I had killed her.
