sjones83
Chirping
- Mar 23, 2016
- 13
- 8
- 57
This morning I noticed one of my young red sex link hens missing from the group. A quick search found her in the hen house looking a little “off”. She was slightly fluffed up, her breathing was a little labored and her vent was “winking” (for lack of a better word). A little while later, she had moved to a laying box and sat down. My first thought was that she was possibly egg bound. She’s about 18 weeks and has not started laying yet but I was thinking this could be her first egg and she could be having trouble. I checked for a bound egg but did not find one. I isolated her from the rest of the group and gave her food and water while I researched what could be wrong. When I moved her from the laying box, I saw a few drops of orangeish poop/excrement. Shortly after, her breathing became more labored but she remained calm. Her eyes closed and she sat, occasionally getting up to stretch, only to sit back down. Just now I watched her die right in front of me. Her mouth was wide open like she was gasping for air and she stood up and made a few terrible noises before she flipped over on her back, flapped violently, and was gone. It happened so quickly. I am in total shock and quite upset. She was behaving normally yesterday. And now I am concerned for the rest of my flock. What can/should I do? Could this be Coccidiosis? I haven’t seen the labored breathing listed as a symptom and it all progressed so quickly.
