Underestimated hen`s ability to fake normal - she was very sick and had to be culled.

[Esmeralda]

Even though I read that a hen can fake `normal` when they are ill I completely underestimated this. One of the new hens (over 2 years old) had laid a silly-putty like mass several weeks ago but I wasn`t sure which one until a few days ago. The sweet girls was loosing weight and looking cold and I couldn`t put my finger on it but just not right. The temperature was due to drop below -21 C so I brought her inside.
I offered her a smorgas board of food, and she was pretending to eat it! She would take a fresh sprout and break it into pieces without actually swallowing it, sift and scratch through grains in a bowl, and sort of toss cooked rice around like she was eating it. After a day, I could see nothing was passing through her system, and she seemed very uncomfortable when I held her, and her abdomen felt very squishy. I made the very hard decicion to kill her. Her entire body cavity was filled with tumours, there were white tumours attached to her liver, her oviduct looked like a small alien and there were fluid filled cyts further up toward her lungs.
I have no idea how she stayed alive and faked being happy and well for so long! She was so sweet, I will truly miss her.

 

[boskelli1571]

So sorry for you and your girl! Take comfort in knowing that you did what was best and she is now happily scratching around in the big sky pasture, Sue

 

[Esmeralda]

Thank you.

 

[siroco]

I know how you feel, im struggling with one of my own. I have to be prepared for the worst as well, her panorama doesnt look too bright I became too close to them I am afraid.

 

[Esmeralda]

There is just no way to know when the right time is! You have to follow your instinct to decide wether they are suffering or not.
Sometimes the other hens will tell you, the top hen or all of the hens may pick on the weaker and sick hen. Which is why they try so hard to fake being well.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Sorry to hear about your hen. You made the right choice.