SCRaveness
In the Brooder
- Aug 10, 2017
- 18
- 2
- 44
About 4 days ago I went out for my final night check on my animals and found one of my RIR hens (18mo old) sitting on the ground just beneath the door outside of the chicken house. She seemed lethargic but no other outward signs of illness (no discharge from nose, eyes, good color) however it looked like she may have had watery poop- but hard to say since she was in with 18 other chickens. I put her in the house for the night and hoped for the best. Needless to say she was expired by morning. This morning, my husband let the girls out so I didn't actually see them until about 11am. When I went to collect eggs, I found another RIR hen sitting on the ground between the food and water but was not partaking in either, just lethargic. Slow blinking eyes, no discharge, good color, She was wet under her vent but did not seem like egg white, so maybe watery poop? I did insert a finger (about 2" not sure how far to go since I am still new to chickens) to check for a possible bound egg and did not detect anything. I separated her immediately and she never did defecate before she expired 4 hours later. I was literally minutes away from leaving to take her to the vet. Unfortunately, they don't do necropsies so I am without answers (I could take her to Clemson University but it's 2.5 hours away and I can't get there in a timely fashion.) I don't want to lose my entire flock! I fully inspected the outside of the 2nd hen's body and found nothing but a few mites- not overly infested. My hens free range on my horse pastures. It did rain all day yesterday, daytime temp about 60deg, low of 34 last night. I think it rained 2 days before the 1st hen died. We are in South Carolina. I was thinking possibly botulism? I'm reading about all the chicken diseases and the signs/symptoms described don't match what I am seeing and they are dying very quickly from onset of signs of illness. I don't know if she (either dead hen) was laying or not TBH, I have/had 10 RIR all 18 mo so all expected to start molting soon and I know that they are all producing less now as their eggs are different from my other birds (marans and australorp). Also, I do have them under lights. I didn't want to leave out any details/variables. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be happening?
