Now I'm REALLY All Chook Up - Lost a Girl

[AllChookUp]

Not an emergency, just wanted to share...

I was traveling on business last week, waiting in Philly for a connecting flight home to MN when I got a call from DW - She found one of our Buff Orp girls dead on the litter floor. Poor DW is a little skittish about touching dead birds; can't blame her.

But I did convince her to put on some old gloves and take the dead hen out of the coop - I was afraid it was causing trauma for the rest of the flock.

I got home really late Friday night and checked the dead bird - I looks like she died trying to lay an egg - It was extended out of her oviduct with a bloody membrane around it. For future knowledge, does this sound like a prolapsed vent or impacted oviduct? Just an FYI, this hen just started laying about a week or so prior.

I feel terrible, as I was not home to notice and prevent this. DW was checking and feeding them every day, but I guess I don't expect her to really notice these things.

Oh well, I'm going to look at it as a learning experience. The rest of the flock looks greqt, and egg production is really kicking in.


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[Buff Hooligans]

Oh man, I'm so sorry! And sorry for your DW to come upon that scene and then have to call you with such bad news.

We lost a Buff Orp a few months after egg-laying started. I guess some birds plumbing just aren't up to the task. I hope it went quick... (Sounds like prolapsed to me, but then again, I've never seen that.)

I sincerely hope the rest of your girls are perfectly equipped and that you don't lose any more.

 

[sred98]

So sorry to hear about your loss. Was the egg extremely large for her? Such a shame.

Just wanted to say I was sorry.

Shelly

 

[AllChookUp]

Thanks, Buff - I appreciate that.

I'm choosing to be thankful it was only one of them.


sred98 - It seemed like a large egg, but then the Orps seem to lay larger eggs than the Glod Laced Wyandottes. It didn't seem abnormally large...

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[chick_newbie]

I am very new to all this but I just wanted to say that I feel really bad about you losing a bird at any cost. I know that I would be freaked to find a dead bird in the house and my DH was gone.

Again, so sorry about your loss!!!

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Did you bury her? We buried ours where we had buried a dead baby chickadee we found in a wild bird nest box at the end of breeding season...

What do people in the frozen north do when they lose one of their pets?

 

[AllChookUp]

Buff -

I did not bury her. I probably would have if it had been summer (actually hadn't thought it through that far).

However, our ground is pretty hard right now (low of -2 on Sunday morning). I double-wrapped her in heavy trash bags, and put her in the garbage. Seems like a pretty inelegant way of handling her death, but I think it's pretty much my only choice.

That, or throw her out into the field for the coyotes and fox, but that seemed pretty harsh.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Quote:
Yes... either way it's heartbreaking. Again, so sorry.
She's probably already found out that Jesus and St. Francis are soft touches for grapes...

 

[AllChookUp]

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