Sick Girl

[Amy Sathoff]

NEW EMERGENCY! We had a sick chicken last night. She couldn't stand and would just flop around. The others basically attacked her and was horrible to watch and when we tried to intervene it was too late and she was suffering so my poor husband had to euthanize her. She has been like a member of our family for 4 years. Would old age cause the symptoms above that I listed or should I be concerned for the other 8 chickens that we have? They have run of a large building. Fresh water and food daily. Building is cleaned and fresh straw put down weekly. Their are 8 laying boxes but they only utilize 3. Other chickens seem fine right now but want to make sure it stays that way. We have noticed that she has slowed considerably down and goes into roost earlier than all the other chickens. All our chickens run the acreage during the day and roost in the building at night. Just the day before she came up to the house with the rest of the chickens for their daily treat! She seemed fine then.

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC.
Sorry for your loss.

Was she sill laying?
How old was she?

 

[Amy Sathoff]

No eggs for over a year. Just a beautiful girl running around. We got her 4 years ago and not sure how old she was before that.

 

[Kiki]

She may have been old.
I'd like to think she was just old....stuff like this happens.

I'd not worry too much about your other girls unless they are getting "old" too or if you notice they stop eating or loosing weight.

 

[Amy Sathoff]

Thank you! She was one of our original "Board of Directors" as my husband calls them! The others are laying still so hopefully it stays that way! I have gotten rather attached to the girls!

 

[Kiki]

Unfortunately chickens don't live forever.
It seems the high laying breeds live much shorter lifes too.

 

[Amy Sathoff]

The Board of Directors!
Hillary is the White
Henny is the Brown
Rachelle is the Multi Colored

 

[Kiki]

Are there any committee members?
(chicks)

 

[Amy Sathoff]

the other 8 hens we have are Rhode island reds and the most recent addition was 3 leghorn chicks. We just added the babies in a separate coop about a month ago. We tried having a rooster...Frank the Tank but he frightened the 3 year old twin grand daughters.