Sudden death of my hen Celia

[islawhite]

Sorry, never used an internet forum before!
Celia was a 3yr old Gingernut ranger. She has been absolutley fine, bullying my ex-bat rescue girl, and behaving normally. Yesterday I found her crouching in the coop where the girls lay, head down, eyes closed. She stayed like that on my lap for a little while, then she passed some clear fluid, no diarrhoea or blood and within 5 hours she was dead. I am devastated. I have been keeping chickens for about 5 years now and never had a situation like this. One of my books mentions 'internal laying' which lead to peritonitis, does this sound like Celia's symptoms and was there something I could have done for her?

 

[Soph xo]

i am so sorry for the death of your chookie

i'm sure there was nothing more you could have done, unfortunately i don't have a clue what could have been wrong.
so sorry! i'll be praying for you

 

[rebbetzin]

I'm sorry for your loss. I know it is a very helpless feeling when one of our animal friends gets sick and we can't seem to make them all better. Could she have been "egg bound"?? I have heard of that, but never had any experience with it.

 

[islawhite]

Thank you for the kind replies.
I contacted the ex-battery charity where we got our ex-bat girl Fanny from. They got back to me yesterday. They think she was probably egg-bound. Taking her to the vet may have helped, but given that she went so quickly, maybe not. The one positive thing is that I have discovered this wonderful resource.

 

[Kittymomma]