Villainess
Songster
Good evening, all. Yesterday afternoon while walking around the chicken yard I noticed one of my Australorp hens, almost a year old, just sitting there almost motionless. They love sunning themselves, and we had just went from below freezing temps to a “heatwave” in the 50s, so I didn’t think too much of it. Until I started walking towards her and she didn’t move, except the once when she turned her head to look at my husband beside me, at the same time I’d looked away. My husband asked me if any of the girls had been fighting or had hurt themselves, because it looked like this hen had blood on her beak. So of course I wanted to check her out.
First thing I noticed when I picked her up was that she felt....limp, I guess is the best way to describe it. She never minded being picked up, but when I’d pick her up before I could always feel this slight tension in her body like she was waiting for the second I’d loosen my hold so she could take off. There was none of that. It was like she was just that weak she didn’t care to move. I noticed her breathing seemed labored and there was a slight raspy sound when she’d take a breath, she was panting like she was hot and like she didn’t want to close her mouth, and she had splatters of blood everywhere. Around her face and beak the blood was dried and looked dark, though it was hard to see against her black feathers. But those feathers at the neck area right above her breast were covered with bright, bright red blood droplets, not wet but the droplets looked like they’d recently coagulated. The bright color of blood looked to me like the bleeding you might see when there was internal bleeding.
I checked her body over for injuries but could find nothing. I checked her ears and face, the beak for any cracks, anything just to make sure it wasn’t coming from those areas. Nothing. I tried opening her beak a little but it seemed to cause her pain doing so, so I only opened enough to try looking around her mouth and down her throat—I couldn’t see much because there was blood constantly pooled up in her mouth.
Immediately I separated her, just in case it was some unseen injury or maybe she was sick. Right before I removed her another hen had started pecking at the blood on her face, so I knew she wouldn’t stand a chance with the other ~35 chickens. I got her isolated and set up in my garage so I could keep watch. She was given water but would not touch it. I withheld food just in case.
I left for work early this morning and she was still bedded down in the garage (it was still dark), so I couldn’t really see if there were any changes in behavior. I told my husband to keep an eye on her through the day. Around 11AM he texted me telling me he had went ahead and put her down. She was too weak to stand, her head really wobbly, the rasp when breathing sounded louder and worse, and she had something he described as a huge bloody ball hanging out of her mouth, big enough she couldn’t close her beak. He didn’t want her to suffer either, so made the decision to euthanize as we’d previously agreed.
They’re not the best, but I’ve attached a couple of pictures of this “ball.” My husband said it had decreased significantly in size by the time I got home. This is probably a stupid question (multiple questions, more like), but what is this? Surely this can’t be her crop or a lung? Chickens have several air sacs I believe, could it be that? I’m still new at owning chickens, and I’m starting to realize just how little I know about chicken anatomy until there’s an injury. What about everything else? What could have caused this bleeding? I’m hoping she may have eaten something she wasn’t supposed to (say a wayward screw), as opposed to some illness that could pass onto my other birds. Any insight would be much appreciated!
Regards,
~Alicia ~
First thing I noticed when I picked her up was that she felt....limp, I guess is the best way to describe it. She never minded being picked up, but when I’d pick her up before I could always feel this slight tension in her body like she was waiting for the second I’d loosen my hold so she could take off. There was none of that. It was like she was just that weak she didn’t care to move. I noticed her breathing seemed labored and there was a slight raspy sound when she’d take a breath, she was panting like she was hot and like she didn’t want to close her mouth, and she had splatters of blood everywhere. Around her face and beak the blood was dried and looked dark, though it was hard to see against her black feathers. But those feathers at the neck area right above her breast were covered with bright, bright red blood droplets, not wet but the droplets looked like they’d recently coagulated. The bright color of blood looked to me like the bleeding you might see when there was internal bleeding.
I checked her body over for injuries but could find nothing. I checked her ears and face, the beak for any cracks, anything just to make sure it wasn’t coming from those areas. Nothing. I tried opening her beak a little but it seemed to cause her pain doing so, so I only opened enough to try looking around her mouth and down her throat—I couldn’t see much because there was blood constantly pooled up in her mouth.
Immediately I separated her, just in case it was some unseen injury or maybe she was sick. Right before I removed her another hen had started pecking at the blood on her face, so I knew she wouldn’t stand a chance with the other ~35 chickens. I got her isolated and set up in my garage so I could keep watch. She was given water but would not touch it. I withheld food just in case.
I left for work early this morning and she was still bedded down in the garage (it was still dark), so I couldn’t really see if there were any changes in behavior. I told my husband to keep an eye on her through the day. Around 11AM he texted me telling me he had went ahead and put her down. She was too weak to stand, her head really wobbly, the rasp when breathing sounded louder and worse, and she had something he described as a huge bloody ball hanging out of her mouth, big enough she couldn’t close her beak. He didn’t want her to suffer either, so made the decision to euthanize as we’d previously agreed.
They’re not the best, but I’ve attached a couple of pictures of this “ball.” My husband said it had decreased significantly in size by the time I got home. This is probably a stupid question (multiple questions, more like), but what is this? Surely this can’t be her crop or a lung? Chickens have several air sacs I believe, could it be that? I’m still new at owning chickens, and I’m starting to realize just how little I know about chicken anatomy until there’s an injury. What about everything else? What could have caused this bleeding? I’m hoping she may have eaten something she wasn’t supposed to (say a wayward screw), as opposed to some illness that could pass onto my other birds. Any insight would be much appreciated!
Regards,
~Alicia ~
I'm wondering if the mass thing is some kind of tumor. Is it hard, squishy? Can you cut it open and see what is inside? Would you be willing to try a home necropsy? Edit : sorry this is late, my laptop died and I just got it back on.
Sending her to the state lab was also out of the question as he wanted the body disposed of as quickly as possible. So I really hope this was just a one-off and not something that will affect my other birds. Thank you for chiming in!
