fluffednfeathered
Hatching
- Jun 4, 2018
- 5
- 0
- 2
Hi All!
This is my first post so hopefully I cover everything here necessary to get some help. Thanks for letting me join this great community!
We got our first RIRs a little over a year ago now and things were going great so we decided to introduce two more two months ago. We purchased the girls from the same local farm and all were around the same age (6-8 months).
Here's the back story: About two weeks ago we had some non-stop rain for a week straight, no sunshine, it was relentless. And while we needed it for our plants I think our 4 RIRs got very stressed and were not able to leave their coop. We went back one night and our newest RIR was unfortunately dead in the corner. Shocked since these are our first hens my husband and I did not know what to do.
I immediately came here to search for help when one of our other new hens started showing very weird symptoms (swollen eyes, hunched over, not eating or drinking, bad breathing patterns, just standing in the corner). We isolated her from our other two. We decided we were against shooting our girls up with antibiotics so we decided to try some VetRX. She eventually passed on later that week. Now I'm beginning to think the two newest hens we introduced maybe brought an illness into the flock that they had from the farm we got them from? But I'm still clueless at this point.
A few days later one of our original RIRs started showing odd behaviors too (one eye would be closed, roosting a lot, she still drank a good amount of water but wasn't eating). I immediately isolated her too from our other just in case. We gave her VetRX too hoping we caught this one early enough. She never showed severe symptoms like our other but after 2-3 days she too was just hunched over by her water, listless and lethargic. She was drinking water but not eating, and her poop was clear. I figured from all the drinking but no eating. After some research I thought maybe she had become egg bound so I did a warm epsom salt bath but she could barley even hold her head up and that didn't seem to help her. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to her just yesterday.
Here's my first question now: Now we're left with one RIR. Who seems to be doing okay besides the fact that she's very confused as to where all her sisters went and why she can't get in her normal nesting place. Her poop looks normal, she's eating and drinking, running around the yard, her color looks good. She has not laid, which I don't blame her for what she's been going through but she has laid in the nest and is cooing. I wonder if either (a) she's a carrier of whatever infection was going around the flock? Still not sure if this was Coryza or what (b) She's egg bound?
Here's my second question now: I closed off the coop so I could do a very deep cleaning and sanitizing it before letting her back in. Is that smart? Once I get back there today to finish sanitizing everything should I wait some more time to let her back in? If yes, how long? Our coop setup is somewhat back on a woods line so it unfortunately doesn't get a ton of sunlight, which is why we let them out to roam a lot. I just want to ensure I do everything I can to keep our last RIR around, healthy and comfortable if I can.
Thanks for listening to my long story =) I can't thank this community enough for all of your help and insight in advance!
This is my first post so hopefully I cover everything here necessary to get some help. Thanks for letting me join this great community!
We got our first RIRs a little over a year ago now and things were going great so we decided to introduce two more two months ago. We purchased the girls from the same local farm and all were around the same age (6-8 months).
Here's the back story: About two weeks ago we had some non-stop rain for a week straight, no sunshine, it was relentless. And while we needed it for our plants I think our 4 RIRs got very stressed and were not able to leave their coop. We went back one night and our newest RIR was unfortunately dead in the corner. Shocked since these are our first hens my husband and I did not know what to do.
I immediately came here to search for help when one of our other new hens started showing very weird symptoms (swollen eyes, hunched over, not eating or drinking, bad breathing patterns, just standing in the corner). We isolated her from our other two. We decided we were against shooting our girls up with antibiotics so we decided to try some VetRX. She eventually passed on later that week. Now I'm beginning to think the two newest hens we introduced maybe brought an illness into the flock that they had from the farm we got them from? But I'm still clueless at this point.
A few days later one of our original RIRs started showing odd behaviors too (one eye would be closed, roosting a lot, she still drank a good amount of water but wasn't eating). I immediately isolated her too from our other just in case. We gave her VetRX too hoping we caught this one early enough. She never showed severe symptoms like our other but after 2-3 days she too was just hunched over by her water, listless and lethargic. She was drinking water but not eating, and her poop was clear. I figured from all the drinking but no eating. After some research I thought maybe she had become egg bound so I did a warm epsom salt bath but she could barley even hold her head up and that didn't seem to help her. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to her just yesterday.
Here's my first question now: Now we're left with one RIR. Who seems to be doing okay besides the fact that she's very confused as to where all her sisters went and why she can't get in her normal nesting place. Her poop looks normal, she's eating and drinking, running around the yard, her color looks good. She has not laid, which I don't blame her for what she's been going through but she has laid in the nest and is cooing. I wonder if either (a) she's a carrier of whatever infection was going around the flock? Still not sure if this was Coryza or what (b) She's egg bound?
Here's my second question now: I closed off the coop so I could do a very deep cleaning and sanitizing it before letting her back in. Is that smart? Once I get back there today to finish sanitizing everything should I wait some more time to let her back in? If yes, how long? Our coop setup is somewhat back on a woods line so it unfortunately doesn't get a ton of sunlight, which is why we let them out to roam a lot. I just want to ensure I do everything I can to keep our last RIR around, healthy and comfortable if I can.
Thanks for listening to my long story =) I can't thank this community enough for all of your help and insight in advance!