This is urgent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PaulaSB12]

I have just found one of my hybred chickens dead in the chicken run. She laid an egg this morning and wasn't showing any signs of distress but she was lying in an odd way and she is dead. When I picked her up some liquid came out of her mouth. None of the other hens is showing any signs of being anything but healthy and happy and I am going to change the sawdust, straw and bleach the coop any ideas? would it be an idea to get an autopsy to check?

 

[leadwolf1]

It is always a good idea to have a necropsy done. However, what you are describing is heart failure or something equally as quick. I do not want to talk you out of a necropsy...they are very important to prove what actually happened.

I'm sorry for your loss

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

OH, I'm so sorry for your loss. And I second a necropsy.

I bought 3 day old Buff Orptingtons and hand raised them. They had come into lay around 5 months and at 6 months noticed one was wheezing hard. Took her to the vet who xrayed her and felt there was something wrong w/ her ability to lay eggs and she was full of fluid and egg white material. So we put her down. I chose to bury her under one of my rose bushes in the garden.

Two days later, one of the other hens started showing the SAME symptoms. And I'm kicking myself for not doing the necropsy.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Its too late to call the vets, so I will ring in the morning. I have scrubbed the coop with bleachy water. Replaced all the food and the water and put new (brought some more sawdust and straw today) sawdust and straw. I will get the necropsy done just to make sure it isn't a disease. I sort of feel like I have let her down.

 

[leadwolf1]

Put her in a plastic bag in the fridge. That will preserve her tissues. See if you can find a state lab that will do the necropsy...vet's prices are crazy. My state lab will do one for $35.

 

[speckledhen]

When they die, fluid comes out of the mouth most of the time. I've been there over and over again with hens who died from internal laying and/or egg yolk peritonitis or even ovarian cancer. It does not necessarily mean there was anything contagious going on. They always leak fluid from their mouths when they die, in my experience.


Hybrids and other common hatchery types are known for dying from those reproductive malfunctions more than other hens. Could have been something else, but I wouldn't be all that concerned. You can of course still have a necropsy done. Those malfunctions fill their abdomens with fluid and eventually, their lungs.

 

[leadwolf1]

This is very true, the contents of their crop runs out as their muscles relax in death. I forgot to comment on that in my first post..thanks speckledhen!

When they die, fluid comes out of the mouth most of the time. I've been there over and over again with hens who died from internal laying and/or egg yolk peritonitis or even ovarian cancer. It does not necessarily mean there was anything contagious going on. They always leak fluid from their mouths when they die, in my experience.

 

[PaulaSB12]

I just had to have my smallest hen put down, the vet is going to send her to the main vets and get an autopsy I have got some disease in my flock that is for sure now. I feel so bad I can't stop crying and feeling like I failed her.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm really sorry, Paula. Please let us know the findings, will you?


I've lost so many hatchery hens to internal laying/egg yolk peritonitis that you'd think it was contagious, which it is not. It's just very common, especially in the higher production layer types. I hope that's all they find.

 

[PaulaSB12]

The vet thinks she was ill when I got her, she had stopped eating and there was an inflamation in her stomach. She was 350 grams which he said was half what she should be. But I had seen her eat and there has been no one stopping her eating so the vet thinks she was ill before I got her. The other hen I got at the same time is bigger than she is and has grown well. I am going to wait until a hen gets broody and then get some hatching eggs of her kind. I will be only getting hatching eggs from now on.