My hen just died in my arms-please help me figure out why. :(

[heiditam]

I have 4 red stars. 8 hens total. Today, during free range, one of the red stars was sitting in woods alone with tail down and sleeping. I found that odd. I picked her up and put her back in run. Later, she was doing same thing in the run. I picked her up to investigate. She was lethargic. Her heart was beating really fast and hard though. I felt around for egg binding, but I didn't feel anything. Although I am very very new to this, so I am not sure what I would be feeling, but I didn't feel any lumps on either side of vent. I took her back out to coop and dipped her beak in water. Her head was limp so I pulled her back and noticed that her head was very droopy and she was having a hard time holding it up. Then it went completely limp and a few moments later, she passed.

I am baffled and so sad. What happened!??!!! She only showed symptoms today.

Mites/Lice-NONE. I am SURE of this. I checked throughly. Girls dust bathe everyday.

Worms/parasites-She was dewormed as a precaution in Sept. No evidence of parasites.

Cocci-I saw red droppings a few months ago and preemptively treated everyone for cocci then. No more red droppings.

The last few days I have noticed that someone was dropping water-y poop but I have been unable to isolate who it was. Watery with green.

But everyone is acting chipper-eating, playing, laying. Except for her today.

Oh please help.

She is from mcmurray so vaccinated against mareks.

It was just so sudden. ????!!!!

 

[WthrLady]

Do you have any mouse or rat poisons out?

 

[heiditam]

Do you have any mouse or rat poisons out?

No.

There is some green ooze seeping out of her vent-just re-examined her. It is a bright green not like dark green I normally see in poop.

 

[enola]

What did you use to worm her?

 

[WthrLady]

Worms?

Check this poop chart out

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[heiditam]

What did you use to worm her?

You know what? I just realized that I used safeguard on the flock but I got her after that, so she has not been wormed...I just realized that-but she is from mcmurray. I intended to worm the mcmurray girls when I worm all of them in march-I figured that she was from mcmurray so probably no worms(she is a started pullet). Her combs are nice and bright red. And until today she was acting very fine.

 

[WthrLady]

If her feet have ever touched earth anywhere....she could have worms

 

[heiditam]

If her feet have ever touched earth anywhere....she could have worms

True. I have only had her a couple of months...do they die suddenly if infected with worms? I have had no other symptoms until recently.

 

[enola]

Bright green poops make me think she had not been eating properly for a couple of days. Does she appear to have lost any weight?

 

[heiditam]

Bright green poops make me think she had not been eating properly for a couple of days. Does she appear to have lost any weight?

Yes. Maybe a little. I noticed that when I picked her up, but it is so hard to tell as I find these girls so bony to begin with.

And, she has not been eating well. None of them have...I got pellets instead of crumbles and they are just not eating them. :/ They have had scraps and scratch. Today I got crumbles and they all ran to it and starting pecking away.

Well, I did a necropsy. I know I am no expert but I looked at all organs and assumed if it was something obvious maybe I could tell...

NO worms anywhere. So I really don't think it was that. I looked everywhere.

Her intestines were pretty narrow-Not much in there. scant green goo. Her ovuduct was narrow too- had scant amount of runny loose yolk. No yolks or forming eggs in system otherwise. There was alot of yellow fatty tissue attached to her intestines, which I find odd, but that may be normal. Her crop-not much in it, but it was really horribly stinky. I had to take a step back it was so foul. Usual stuff-seeds, some meat scraps, some leafy greens and grass. Maybe 2 tablespoons at most. There was some liquid with it. Not much. Can you get sour crop without having a full compacted crop?


Anyhow, those are the biggest things I saw. Everything sure looked good to me. ?

Another clue is that she may have been roost laying everynight...if she was laying at all. I have 4 red stars who sleep next to each other, and one has been roost laying so I cannot figure out who it is, but it happens early early morning, right before it is light, and every single day. For about 2 weeks almost.