Please help!!!

[Anna_MN]

My poor Gold Star hen, Reba, seems to be sick. I went out to the coop this morning and she wouldn't stand up. I picked her up and she kept her legs tucked under and didn't even flinch. She will open her eyes if she hears a loud noise or I touch her, but other than that she keeps them closed. I honestly have no idea what could be wrong with her. Last night she might have laid me a soft egg, but it was too hard to decide if it was from her or my Rhode Island Red. The egg had blood in the soft membrane so I'm pretty sure it was from her. She was so happy and lively last night at 11pm and now she won't even get up. When I found her, I put her in her nest box and gave her some food and water. I've only had her for a week and a half and her coop is always at 50 degrees, fresh water, plenty of high quality layer food, and the occasional cherry tomato or stale bread. I feel so discouraged

any help would be greatly appreciated! Also- should I seperate her from the other hens?

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Aw poor hen. That is a quick onset of symptoms. You may want to separate her from the others in the coop so you can keep a closer eye on her symptoms like eating and pooping. even a box in the garage is fine. You can check her over by feeling her belly and looking at her vent.

You can look at this link for symptoms to watch for http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

Post back if you notice any other symptoms.

 

[Anna_MN]

Unfortunately she died about 20 minutes after I posted this. Still a mystery. My other hens are very very active and healthy but I will have to keep monitoring them.

 

[heritagebirds]

Oh my goodness, so sorry to hear. At least she didn't suffer long...but you miss her, I'm sure.

 

[Anna_MN]

Quote:
Thank you. She was the only one I named too

. I have been trying so hard to do everything right and I have been getting so frustrated with all the little things going wrong and now this. I hate not knowing what happened to her...

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

A necropsy is not usually very expensive. I find that its a great learning tool, for future reference, if you have a bird with similar symptoms. Refrigerate the bird, not freeze, until you can take her to a vet, or county ag person.

Its worth the peace of mind to know what happened.

 

[Anna_MN]

Thank you all for your support. I think she might have died from salt poisoning actually. My father just informed me that when he took care of my chickens for me yesterday while I was doing some studying for finals that he filled their waterer with softened water

. Our water is softened by an extremely high amount of salt since we have so much iron in our water. Good thing my other girls were mostly outside yesterday and today and used the outside waterer that had unsoftened water in it. My father offered to buy me a new hen but I don't think i'm quite ready for that yet.