my hen just died and not sure why??

[sherriw23]

I had a about 2 year old buff, for the past couple of days she has been sleeping a lot and not eating a lot that I have noticed. she had no signs of leg mites and looked fairly healthy. today she did not come out of her coup and was sleeping on the floor not on the roost. when I got her out of there she was very cold and skinny her comb was cold and dark in color and flopped over. I brought her inside and wrapped her up to try and get her temp up. she was very lathargic and would only open her eyes when i moved her. I used a syringe to get some water in her and then later i picked up her head and when it lowered some brownish liquid started pouring out. I then examined her for a crop blockage and she then seemed like she had a stroke then she died I am so confused and fear that this might happen to the rest of my flock if anyone can shed some light on this I would greatly appreciate it!

thanks sherri

 

[Trishkabob]

I'm so sorry. I have nothing to help you figure this out but saw your post and wanted to respond. I hope someone with more experience than I responds with something more helpful. I never get used fo the dying part of this....

 

[7villager]

Hi there Threadstarter. I have just joined the forum so that I could reply to you specifically. What you just described just happened to my favorite Buff this morning. Her name was Esther. She was 1 yr and 9 months old. I noticed a bunch of feathers in the coop when I went to let them out yesterday morning. They free range from morning to night. At the same time yesterday morning she was laying in the bottom corner of the coop which was odd but she did get out and about within a few minutes. I attributed the feathers to molting. We are in Ormond Beach, FL. This morning when I went to let them out, she was laying in the roost area on the floor and nearly motionless. Clearly she was dying. I picked her up and tried to give her water in a syringe (but don't think any went in) and then she died in my arms within 5-10 minutes. Here is my suspicion and I wanted to check with you to see if the same thing was true for you. A couple of weeks ago I switched their food to Nutrena Nature Wise All Flock pellets. They didn't seem to like it and ate very little of it. I just thought they were being fussy and that they would get used to it. But now I think the food may have had some kind of poisoning in it. I had thrown the bag away because I store the food in an airtight container but I went to the feed store this morning and they looked up the product # and the Lot # so that I can contact Nutrena. I was wondering what kind of food you had yours on in case their was a connection. I have already switched their food out and back to the regular Nutrena Layer Crumbles but I hope it is not too late for the others. I really hope this isn't the problem and that it was just a death due to natural causes. Let me know if you can. Thanks.

 

[7villager]

Sorry, I meant to say Sherri, not Threadstarter.

 

[Trishkabob]

hi Sherri,
did you ever figure out what happened to your hen? How are your others?

 

[7villager]

About 6 weeks prior to Little Esther dying, I had switched them to the Nutrena Nature Wise pellets, thinking there would be less waste. They never seemed to like them and I even mentioned it to the feed store. I thought the girls were just being fussy and they would eventually come around. However, they did not. At the same time of Esther's death, kind of simultaneously, they all began to molt. When Esther died, I contacted Nutrena because I knew that it had something to do with the feed and thought that something could have gone wrong in the manufacturing process and that they would want to test it. They are testing and in fact I will call this week to follow up. They said it would take a few weeks and this week will make 4. HOWEVER, the Nutrena rep said that is more likely this. When you feed chickens pellets their gizzards cannot process them. The gizzard keeps trying but cannot. And then I guess death. To prevent this you need to supplement the pellets with soluble grit, not the oyster shell but the other. This helps the gizzard to process. Anyway, he said that is is a VERY LONG recovery and so far I will say that he is right. I switched them back to their regular crumbles right away on the day of Esther's death, and when they are fully recovered I will switch them to the Nature Wise crumbles. They all quit laying for a few weeks. 2 did not seem to be affected except for they stopped laying (Little Pearl and Abigail). They are now this past couple of weeks giving us 1 - 2 eggs a week. Martha has recovered but still not laying. Little Linda Love is stable but still in stress. And Little Leah is still in serious condition going to bed maybe hour to hour and a half ahead of the others. I do believe they all will eventually recover but I still worry about Little Leah. Thank you so much for asking. It has been a stressful period. I will let you know IF it was a manufacturing issue, but I suspect it is a pellet issue.