Please Help

[charlie321]

Hi Friends, I need your help. We are new to chickens and we have seven sweet ladies. We have had three nights that have dropped below freezing. Today one of our 9 month old RIR was all puffed up and standing alone. At first we thought that she was just cold and resting, but when I went out to check on them this afternoon she wouldn't open her eyes or move. I picked her up and took her out of the pen and started rubbing her thinking she was freezing, she then started to spit out clear slimy liquid.

Again I thought she maybe freezing to death, we wrapped her in towels and brought her in. All the rubbing and holding wouldn't even get her to move, she barely opened her eyes. She won't stand and is limp.

Quick research said maybe a stuck egg, so I gave her a warm bath and a 15 min massage. I did not feel any egg.

Spoon fed her some water and apple cider vinegar, she just kinda whines and that is all.

Fed her a bit of yogurt, no response.

Now she is breathing slow and deep, can't stand or move.

Any Ideas? Please help if you can. Thank you so very much in advance.

Please forgive errors in spelling or otherwise, LCD cable is messed up and hard to see thru all the pink in the screen.

 

[charlie321]

spent hours scouring the web and found nothing to explain what has happened to my hen.
sadly she passed away.... sucks

 

[artsyrobin]

i am sorry you lost her- birds are very good at hiding illness, keep a close watch on the others for anything out of the ordinary, eating, poop etc. What are you feeding? Housng conditions etc would help try to figure it out

 

[charlie321]

thanks, we feed them organic layer feed, veggies and fruit. they have an awesome coop and hen house. We sprinkle diatom daily.
We clean twice a week. She gave no signs, I was with them for a bit on Thursday and all seemed well and happy.
Just don't know....

 

[artsyrobin]

one of the hardest things with chickens is there are times when you will be clueless- sounds like you are doing things right- wonder if she got bit by a spider or something

 

[charlie321]

one of the hardest things with chickens is there are times when you will be clueless- sounds like you are doing things right- wonder if she got bit by a spider or something

You may be on to something?!?... with the freeze this week I have spotted several dead widows round the house... maybe she ate one? Good thinking, thank you.
We are going do an autopsy tomorrow to see what we can rule out. Don't really think it is worms but have to check just to put my mind at ease.
Interestingly we found out that we may be over cleaning, deep litter seems to be a better choice for good bacteria sake. Always on the look out for natural living.
Thank you for taking the time for me.

 

[mwat]

Sorry to hear about your hen :-( You are brave doing an autopsy, I should have done that on the hen we lost a good while back. She was really skittish and sounded a huge alarm whenever another bird landed in the yard and she seemed to have died on the same spot she sounded the alarm each time. We assumed she died of a fright. Because we only just enjoyed watching her have a dust bath and a night time scratch with the others like normal the night before.

Hope this was a one off thing and you can enjoy the rest of your ladies

 

[realsis]

Clear liquid could also possibly be a sign of respitory illness. I've learned this with my own chickens. They also can be very very good at hiding illness. Its just another possibility I wanted to bring up. hope this helps. Let us know what you find during your exam. Im very sorry for your loss.

 

[casportpony]

The liquid coming out of her mouth was probably just part of the dying process. Next time you find one like put on a glove, lube your finger and gently check the inside of her vent for an egg. If there is an egg, give a human calcium pill and see if that helps her pass the egg. If she doesn't pass the egg, give warm bath.

-Kathy

 

[charlie321]

Worms it is...not sure where we went wrong, but have a plan to get them all healthy.
Started them on minced fresh garlic, raw apple cider vinegar in the water and yogurt this morning all of which they LOVE.
I cut out the veggies and fruit, except green leafies, for now,
and I am going to start them on fermented feed as soon as it is ready.
Guess I should have been doing that all along. We learned about how it keeps good bacteria in their bellies.
Hopefully they will all be okay. Lessons keep us young I suppose.
Oh, and I did find out that the clear vomit was water left in her crop.
Thanks for your support and help.