I'm so upset
. This morning, I found my little RIR bantam hen, Spicy,dead on the floor of the coop. She had passed away in the night. I had posted about her about a week ago, because I was concerned about her being so thin, and having mild diarrhea. She was eating and drinking fine, freeranging with everyone else, everday. She had also been recently wormed. Even though I've been keeping a close eye on her for the past couple of weeks, it wasn't until the last two days that I noticed that, although she was still foraging around the yard, she wasn't as fast moving as the others. At night, she normally roosts in the nest boxes, which I was fine with, because since I was concerned about her, I could watch her poos this way. All her poos were normal. Yesterday, when I went to clean off the poop board, and coop, I noticed there wasn't any poo in the nest box. I knew there was no way she roosted with the other girls, since she is one of the lowest ranking hens, and never goes up there willingly. I shrugged it off, thinking I would see if I could figure it out. When I went to lock them up last night, she was sitting in the corner of the coop, on the floor. She looked fine, I even went ahead and trimmed her butt up, so the poo, though not much of it, wouldn't stick to her. (I used to be a pet groomer, I'm a little nuerotic about that stuff
) I knew it wasn't a good sign that she was down there. I even told my husband last night that I didn't expect her to be around much longer, just had a feeling. What stinks, is there were no other symptoms for me to treat her for, otherwise, I would have. I even had a crate set up in the house, in case I needed to bring her in. Anyway, sorry about the long story, I'm just still upset from this. She was one of my original four hens that I got just over a year ago. She was only two years old. So, to my question, I went ahead and opened her up to see if maybe she was an internal layer or something. I didn't think she was eggbound, as she was soooo skinny, and there wasn't anything swollen on her anywhere. The only thing I was looking for was any signs of eggs, yolks, anything. I really didn't have a clue of any other illnesses or what to even look for. I didn't find any signs of eggs. All I found was some very light yellow fluid. Not sure if that is normal or not. When I first found her in the coop, she had a little bit of this fluid coming out of her vent. However, I know that when an animal dies, sometimes the body releases bowels, bladders, etc, so not sure it wasn't just that. Anyone have any ideas if she was an internal layer? I will add that she hadn't laid an egg in probably 6 months, but was laying regulary before that. How long can a chicken last if they are laying internally?
Thanks!
Thanks!
