Tonight my husband and I went to lock up the coops and noticed one chicken was missing. This chicken, in hindsight , has been acting weird.
A little back story. We have two small coops, one for our chicks and one for our 3 chickens and rooster. We are converting an outbuilding into a coop asap.
About a week ago this chicken started sleeping in the chicks' coop at night . We thought she was motherly because she stopped hanging with the two chickens and rooster and stayed closer to the coops and chicks. Her backend feathers have always looked ruffled-like they don't close up over her vent properly but my husband bought her like that so we did not worry about it. No smell, no discharge but the feathers were not as white there as everywhere else. She was still laying one egg a day every day. looking back she has probably been withdrawing from the other chickens not being motherly to the chicks as I thought.
So we drove around on the 4 wheelers tonight looking fro 'Whitey'. No luck. As I pulled up to the shed, my headlights shone under the shed and I saw her. My husband kind of patted her to come out so we could put her in the coop. She barely stirred and her head kind of flopped but she was alive. Not sure what to do he went to the house to get our teen son who is the only one small enough to fit under the shed to get her. By the time they got back I had my gloves on and was trying to coax her out and she tried to stand up but her legs were shaking really bad and then she literally fell over dead. There was liquid dripping from either her eye or mouth but I am not sure which, not much just a few drops.
So I do not know what to do.
What did she die of?
Do the others have it? Can I treat it?
My husband eats the eggs everyday, could he get sick?
I really have no clue what to do and am very sad that my poor chicken died.
A little back story. We have two small coops, one for our chicks and one for our 3 chickens and rooster. We are converting an outbuilding into a coop asap.
About a week ago this chicken started sleeping in the chicks' coop at night . We thought she was motherly because she stopped hanging with the two chickens and rooster and stayed closer to the coops and chicks. Her backend feathers have always looked ruffled-like they don't close up over her vent properly but my husband bought her like that so we did not worry about it. No smell, no discharge but the feathers were not as white there as everywhere else. She was still laying one egg a day every day. looking back she has probably been withdrawing from the other chickens not being motherly to the chicks as I thought.
So we drove around on the 4 wheelers tonight looking fro 'Whitey'. No luck. As I pulled up to the shed, my headlights shone under the shed and I saw her. My husband kind of patted her to come out so we could put her in the coop. She barely stirred and her head kind of flopped but she was alive. Not sure what to do he went to the house to get our teen son who is the only one small enough to fit under the shed to get her. By the time they got back I had my gloves on and was trying to coax her out and she tried to stand up but her legs were shaking really bad and then she literally fell over dead. There was liquid dripping from either her eye or mouth but I am not sure which, not much just a few drops.
So I do not know what to do.
What did she die of?
Do the others have it? Can I treat it?
My husband eats the eggs everyday, could he get sick?
I really have no clue what to do and am very sad that my poor chicken died.
