Was it the heat or something else? RIP Florence.

[texaschick84]

Well, we lost our first hen today. Florence was a beautiful barred Plymouth and also the largest hen of my flock. About a week ago, we had a tough heat wave. After everything we did to help alleviate the heat stress (fans, shaded backyard, ice packs to stand on, frozen melon rinds), she seemed strange. Normally, Florence was very social and near the top of the pecking order. After that first day of 100 degree heat, she was slow. I mean walked slow, ate slow, timid to eat around the other hens, even slow to come out of the coop and into the yard in the mornings. She was still eating and drinking water, so I thought that while it was unfortunate, she seemed okay. This evening, we came out to close up the coop and found her just lying in the yard while the rest of the flock was already roosting. When our dog put her nose on her without any reaction, we knew something was wrong. She was lying listless, barely breathing. We tried to cool her and give her drops of water. When the water hit her beak, she started convulsing and spitting up. I went inside to call my brother for advice (he’s a poultry science major). It was too late. She passed. Does this sound like heat exhaustion or should we consider something else to be the cause?

*After some research, I regretfully wish we would have given the flock electrolytes on that first day of the heat wave.

 

[LJoWilly]

Awe...R.i.p Florence

 

[rebrascora]

Perhaps your brother might be able to do a necropsy on her for you because that is the only way that you will really stand a chance of figuring out what the problem was.
How old was she?
When you say she was a big bird, do you mean unusually heavy or very plump? What do you feed your flock? Main feed and treats?
Her size may have had a bearing on her death.
Were her butt feathers soiled at all?

 

[micstrachan]

I’m so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing. It might inspire more of us to offer electrolytes in the heat.

 

[texaschick84]

Perhaps your brother might be able to do a necropsy on her for you because that is the only way that you will really stand a chance of figuring out what the problem was.
How old was she?
When you say she was a big bird, do you mean unusually heavy or very plump? What do you feed your flock? Main feed and treats?
Her size may have had a bearing on her death.
Were her butt feathers soiled at all?

He does have a lot of experience with raising chickens, but has just graduated college with his degree. I’m not sure if he’s done that before.
She just turned a year old last month. When I say big I mean taller, larger frame than the rest of the flock. We feed the flock purina layer crumbles. During the heat wave, they got frozen treats like a tray of frozen water with bananas in the ice or watermelon rind slices that had been frozen. Her butt feathers were fairly clean. A very small amount of dried poo (maybe a couple pea sized drops).