- Mar 24, 2013
- 6
- 0
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My 10 month old Easter Egger Lily unexpectedly passed away yesterday.
Cliff Notes:
A few weeks ago I noticed someone was having watery, almost florescent green poops, and they appeared to potentially have tiny worms in them. I also noticed that someone was dropping soft shell eggs from the roost at night. I presumed they were the same chicken and related issues. Unable to determine who it was, I treated the entire flock for worms and the green poops seemed to stop and I stopped finding soft shelled eggs (and believe me I looked). Everyone looked fine.
The last few days Lily seemed a bit more dazed and confused then usual. She's always been an inactive chicken, calm, lovable, and reserved and sometime seems to be off in her own world. Aside from that she was eating and drinking with everyone else. That aside, she was the baby chick I always worried about. She was slow to grow and always on the tiny side. She didn't reach adult size until several months after the rest of the flock; and her comb has remained flat even though it turned red. She has remained thin and I have never technically confirmed she started laying. Everyone else I have confirmed a long time ago and without effort. About 6-8 weeks ago a dog attacked my chickens. Lily was unharmed, but turned up over a mile away roaming with neighborhood chickens outside a local restaurant. It's possible she ate something bad or was exposed to something.
Yesterday morning she looked normal when I put out breakfast (8 AM) and was eating with everyone else. At 3 PM my son came home from school and found her by herself, next to the fence, very lethargic. He said she couldn't really stand up on her own and was very limp. It was 95 degrees and this is an abrupt change from our recent weather (80's). He brought her inside to give her fluids and electrolytes and watch her, but 15 minutes later she had a seizure and died. After she died she passed some mucous out of her throat.
I'm troubled and confused. What do I do with her body? What the heck killed her? How can I be sure the rest of the flock is healthy? Everyone else seems fine but so did Lily. There is the usual occasional sneeze but no one has raspy breathing or frequent sneezing. I don't see any runny beaks. There are the occasional calcium pimples on some of the eggs, or a whirled bit of thick shell, but at least two of my chickens have pretty much always done that and a few of them have occasionally done it. Everyone has red combs, though some of the combs seem a bit paler and drier in the last few days. They aren't colorless by any means though. And some of my chickens are laying less frequently (or I just can't always tell them apart from the other girls). I did have a drop in egg production temporarily after the dog attack, but I thought that was over. Everyone is eating and running about. What should I be looking for and what should I do? I have no local avian vet and cannot afford an autopsy. How do I prevent another death? I don't even know if it was just Lily or if it was something contagious.
Cliff Notes:
A few weeks ago I noticed someone was having watery, almost florescent green poops, and they appeared to potentially have tiny worms in them. I also noticed that someone was dropping soft shell eggs from the roost at night. I presumed they were the same chicken and related issues. Unable to determine who it was, I treated the entire flock for worms and the green poops seemed to stop and I stopped finding soft shelled eggs (and believe me I looked). Everyone looked fine.
The last few days Lily seemed a bit more dazed and confused then usual. She's always been an inactive chicken, calm, lovable, and reserved and sometime seems to be off in her own world. Aside from that she was eating and drinking with everyone else. That aside, she was the baby chick I always worried about. She was slow to grow and always on the tiny side. She didn't reach adult size until several months after the rest of the flock; and her comb has remained flat even though it turned red. She has remained thin and I have never technically confirmed she started laying. Everyone else I have confirmed a long time ago and without effort. About 6-8 weeks ago a dog attacked my chickens. Lily was unharmed, but turned up over a mile away roaming with neighborhood chickens outside a local restaurant. It's possible she ate something bad or was exposed to something.
Yesterday morning she looked normal when I put out breakfast (8 AM) and was eating with everyone else. At 3 PM my son came home from school and found her by herself, next to the fence, very lethargic. He said she couldn't really stand up on her own and was very limp. It was 95 degrees and this is an abrupt change from our recent weather (80's). He brought her inside to give her fluids and electrolytes and watch her, but 15 minutes later she had a seizure and died. After she died she passed some mucous out of her throat.
I'm troubled and confused. What do I do with her body? What the heck killed her? How can I be sure the rest of the flock is healthy? Everyone else seems fine but so did Lily. There is the usual occasional sneeze but no one has raspy breathing or frequent sneezing. I don't see any runny beaks. There are the occasional calcium pimples on some of the eggs, or a whirled bit of thick shell, but at least two of my chickens have pretty much always done that and a few of them have occasionally done it. Everyone has red combs, though some of the combs seem a bit paler and drier in the last few days. They aren't colorless by any means though. And some of my chickens are laying less frequently (or I just can't always tell them apart from the other girls). I did have a drop in egg production temporarily after the dog attack, but I thought that was over. Everyone is eating and running about. What should I be looking for and what should I do? I have no local avian vet and cannot afford an autopsy. How do I prevent another death? I don't even know if it was just Lily or if it was something contagious.
