What’s Bugging Bagheera?

[Kathy Golla]

She died from being too fat. Her liver ruptured.

Oh my gosh you are seriously killing me.
Well...the report came back fast. And..it could be worse.
Now remember the fatty liver thing is genetic, some hens are predisposed to it. You arent killing your hens, cause not all your hens are predisposed to it and will die of that.
I'll tell you, every time I go to the vet, the vet, no matter who I see in the practice, tells me that my hens health problems have to do with them being fat. They can tell cause my hens have thick fat pads.
Oviduct infection...because she's fat.
Laying soft shelled and shell-less eggs..because shes fat.
Bumblefoot ..because she's fat.
Feeling punky....having laying problems because she's fat.
Messy back end...because she's fat.
Feathers on back end not preened..because she's fat.
And its true. But Ive also talked over and over to the vets and ask them what I can do, and none of them have any solutions. Its really a symptom of backyard chickening, esp in suburbia where the hens are kept in smaller pens during the day, and with hatchery hens.
Keeping food from them only causes problems with the order, cause the top hens will guard the food all the time for themselves, plus overeat when they do eat. (Im not saying anything about what Kiki suggested with the 3/4 c food per hen, thats not my intention, this is just what the vet related.)
One vet said an idea would be to have them all in one pen, during the day, with no food except in the morning and evening, and separate each hen to separate pens to eat. Uhh..no. He said what that would cause unfortunately is a lot of stress for the hens, and cause them to fight over any perceived food, all the time. He said even free ranging is...eating. Ugh. No one has any great solutions to it, other than to not feed treats and exercising them as much as possible, which is what you are doing.
Ive kind of come to the place where, Im doing all I can, and Im doing the best I can do, and they are probably not going to live forever, so I just do my best and try to enjoy them every day. If they die of being fat...I tried my best.

 

[micstrachan]

Oh my gosh you are seriously killing me.
Well...the report came back fast. And..it could be worse.
Now remember the fatty liver thing is genetic, some hens are predisposed to it. You arent killing your hens, cause not all your hens are predisposed to it and will die of that.
I'll tell you, every time I go to the vet, the vet, no matter who I see in the practice, tells me that my hens health problems have to do with them being fat. They can tell cause my hens have thick fat pads.
Oviduct infection...because she's fat.
Laying soft shelled and shell-less eggs..because shes fat.
Bumblefoot ..because she's fat.
Feeling punky....having laying problems because she's fat.
Messy back end...because she's fat.
Feathers on back end not preened..because she's fat.
And its true. But Ive also talked over and over to the vets and ask them what I can do, and none of them have any solutions. Its really a symptom of backyard chickening, esp in suburbia where the hens are kept in smaller pens during the day, and with hatchery hens.
Keeping food from them only causes problems with the order, cause the top hens will guard the food all the time for themselves, plus overeat when they do eat. (Im not saying anything about what Kiki suggested with the 3/4 c food per hen, thats not my intention, this is just what the vet related.)
One vet said an idea would be to have them all in one pen, during the day, with no food except in the morning and evening, and separate each hen to separate pens to eat. Uhh..no. He said what that would cause unfortunately is a lot of stress for the hens, and cause them to fight over any perceived food, all the time. He said even free ranging is...eating. Ugh. No one has any great solutions to it, other than to not feed treats and exercising them as much as possible, which is what you are doing.
Ive kind of come to the place where, Im doing all I can, and Im doing the best I can do, and they are probably not going to live forever, so I just do my best and try to enjoy them every day. If they die of being fat...I tried my best.

Thanks, Kathy.

So I just looked back over the prelim. It said there was grain in the crop and stomach. However, I don’t feed grain to my flock (they are on grower crumble right now due to pullets younger than point of lay in the flock. They have been on crumble their whole lives), her crop was empty the morning of her death, they did not get to free range the two night before (remember all my night meetings last week?) and she never got a chance to free range that day because she died before I got home. How could she have grain in her system?

 

[Kathy Golla]

Dunno...”grain” could mean a lot of things. Could be grass seeds or seeds that hadn’t digested over a few days (?).

 

[Kiki]

Thanks, Kathy.

So I just looked back over the prelim. It said there was grain in the crop and stomach. However, I don’t feed grain to my flock (they are on grower crumble right now due to pullets younger than point of lay in the flock. They have been on crumble their whole lives), her crop was empty the morning of her death, they did not get to free range the two night before (remember all my night meetings last week?) and she never got a chance to free range that day because she died before I got home. How could she have grain in her system?

What bedding do you use?
Rice stuff?

 

[micstrachan]

Also, peripheral nerves were grossly normal. Wouldn’t that indicate no Marek’s?

 

[micstrachan]

What bedding do you use?
Rice stuff?

Pine shavings in the coop, but yes, they got rice hulls (it’s just the empty shell, without grain) the weekend before to make up for lack of free ranging.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Maybe they thought rice hulls were “grain.”

 

[Kiki]

Pine shavings in the coop, but yes, they got rice hulls (it’s just the empty shell, without grain) the weekend before to make up for lack of free ranging.

I'm wondering if that is what they are calling grain.
They may even be calling the feed/good grain.
Ask.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Also, peripheral nerves were grossly normal. Wouldn’t that indicate no Marek’s?

I think per my understanding, that would mean she didn’t have an active case of the neurological Mareks. Your other hen they found signs in the lungs, right?

 

[Kiki]

Can you post the whole report?