R.I.P. William I'll miss u

[william10715]

This was her as a baby. I am or was a new chicken pet owner and owned a white female chicken who was very healthy and had a diva attitude. I love her very dearly. She had started to lay eggs and on her 8th egg she started to show signs of weakness/lethargic i thought she was ready to lay down on her eggs. But after 48 hours she passed and i was devastated and know i pray someone will tell me why she died and i will try to give as much info.
Age: 5-6 months

Symptoms: white discharge, sneezing/wheezing, water stools, purple comb, gasping for air, feathers would crust from white poop, on last days would not get up, increase water intake, loss of appetite

What I did to help: I would give her warm baths to clean her, she is a free range bird who had plenty of good air, changed her water daily although somehow it would always end up dirty

I never owned a chicken and call me ignorant but I thought the sneezing was just her way of being. I didnt know chickens could get worms so i never gave her anything for worms. Also i never heard her cluck like other chickens.
Please if anyone could help me i want to learn so this wont happen again

 

[Maddly]

I'm so sorry for your loss. My chickens are like pets to me, so I know how very attached we can get to our birds and how devastating it can be to lose them. It sounds like you took very good care of her and loved her very much.

From the symptoms you listed, it sounds like she might have had some sort of respiratory disease, but it is hard to know for sure what it was. Maybe someone with more experience than me will have some ideas, but I think the only way to know for sure would be to have some tests run. Depending on where you are in the country some places will do it for free or for very low cost. I saw a really good old thread about this recently that had a list of all of the labs in the US that could be contacted, here is a link:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/799747/how-to-send-a-bird-for-a-necropsy-pictures