My smallest hen was laying at the back door and I brought her in, empty crop and no problems with vent. I put her in warm water and she held her head up interested while I had to attend another emergency. The last few minutes I had to hold her head out of the water so I wrapped her in a towel and brought her to bed and laid her in my lap. She died by what I think was sudden cardiac arrest as she threw her head back twice violently and she was gone. I looked at her breast and noticed her feathers were partially gone.
This was significant to me because I have a hen that has been bare breasted and her underside is red, inflamed and totally bare. It has been for 7 months. She seems to be getting thinner and when I give her a bath, her feathers are brittle and there is dust and pieces of feather in the water. They all totally immerse themselves in loose dust daily. I can't see lice or mites. My girl that is alive has a painful swollen feather shaft on her tail today that I saw her preening.. I thought it might be proof of mites or lice finally but I couldn't see anything.
I've gone out in the coop at night but she sleeps in a straw filled nest box away from the other hens and rooster. The rest of my little flock sleep above her on top of the nesting boxes. The hens don't avoid that nest box and will sit in it and lay their eggs the next day. I have dusted the straw with diatomaceous earth and looked for mites at night with a flashlight but couldn't see anything. W\ould I need a magnifying lenses to see mites?. If feathers start to come back in on her underside, soon they are just gone - shaft and all. Her skin is crusted and red toward the front of her undercarriage and the area closer to her vent is goose pimpled and brilliant red. She has about an inch of downy feathers between the goose pimpled flesh and her vent.
I got some duramycin-10 (tetracycline hydrochloride, soluble powder) and am next going to try this. For one hen, how much powder to water do I give? I believe my smallest hen may have died from secondary infection due to wet pox. Post mortem, I found blisters on the underside of her tongue but only on the left side.
I'm new to raising chickens. PLEASE HELP!!! I love my hens!!!
Thank you,
Angela
This was significant to me because I have a hen that has been bare breasted and her underside is red, inflamed and totally bare. It has been for 7 months. She seems to be getting thinner and when I give her a bath, her feathers are brittle and there is dust and pieces of feather in the water. They all totally immerse themselves in loose dust daily. I can't see lice or mites. My girl that is alive has a painful swollen feather shaft on her tail today that I saw her preening.. I thought it might be proof of mites or lice finally but I couldn't see anything.
I've gone out in the coop at night but she sleeps in a straw filled nest box away from the other hens and rooster. The rest of my little flock sleep above her on top of the nesting boxes. The hens don't avoid that nest box and will sit in it and lay their eggs the next day. I have dusted the straw with diatomaceous earth and looked for mites at night with a flashlight but couldn't see anything. W\ould I need a magnifying lenses to see mites?. If feathers start to come back in on her underside, soon they are just gone - shaft and all. Her skin is crusted and red toward the front of her undercarriage and the area closer to her vent is goose pimpled and brilliant red. She has about an inch of downy feathers between the goose pimpled flesh and her vent.
I got some duramycin-10 (tetracycline hydrochloride, soluble powder) and am next going to try this. For one hen, how much powder to water do I give? I believe my smallest hen may have died from secondary infection due to wet pox. Post mortem, I found blisters on the underside of her tongue but only on the left side.
I'm new to raising chickens. PLEASE HELP!!! I love my hens!!!
Thank you,
Angela
