Hello All,
I lost a chicken yesterday. She is right about 1 year old - survived a long cold winter, and then died yesterday just as the weather is turning mild and sunny and the grass and leaves are sprouting!
She is an Australorp, and was laying 6 eggs a week up until she died. 5 days ago, I moved my 2 chickens into a new coop. I had painted it and let it air out and put 4 inches of sand in for the bottom of it. I had also sprayed it down with Oxine because it is essentially a converted old shed. 3 days ago, she laid a soft-shelled egg - like a leathery outer coating. Two days ago, she laid a thin-shelled egg but it was still hard. Yesterday, she laid another soft shelled egg. Two days ago, she seemed perky enough, but I noticed she didn't go up to the top roost to roost, despite being the head of the flock. She seemed fine yesterday morning, but when I went outside later in the day she was huddled under the porch and later in the yard, obviously weak and sick. Her respiration rate was up but I did not notice any abnormal breathing sounds. I brought her in in the evening - and she died around 9pm. There are no signs of mites, trauma - and even her comb and waddles were not gray - maybe only a little dull. For a few days her poop had been a little runny and yellow - not much poo substance, mostly the urates. She is on a regular pellet diet with a handful of scratch each day and plenty of water. Her crop was empty yesterday when I gave her a mini-exam. The flock has a history of Mereks - the last three I lost in December/January. I wonder if she has had Mereks, survived, but has a crippled immune system and some kind of influenza swept in and knocked her out.
What could have happened here? Now my other chicken, an Easter Egger, is looking depressed and subdued, and has only laid one egg since we moved her to the new coop. I'm worried she will end up like my Australorp.
I have 5 6-week old chicks that spent an afternoon out with the older chickens about 5 days ago as well - none of them are having any problems and have been returned to a quarantined area. I am worried about my new coop - can moves like that really stress out chickens? Could a new environmental toxin have poisoned them?
I lost a chicken yesterday. She is right about 1 year old - survived a long cold winter, and then died yesterday just as the weather is turning mild and sunny and the grass and leaves are sprouting!
She is an Australorp, and was laying 6 eggs a week up until she died. 5 days ago, I moved my 2 chickens into a new coop. I had painted it and let it air out and put 4 inches of sand in for the bottom of it. I had also sprayed it down with Oxine because it is essentially a converted old shed. 3 days ago, she laid a soft-shelled egg - like a leathery outer coating. Two days ago, she laid a thin-shelled egg but it was still hard. Yesterday, she laid another soft shelled egg. Two days ago, she seemed perky enough, but I noticed she didn't go up to the top roost to roost, despite being the head of the flock. She seemed fine yesterday morning, but when I went outside later in the day she was huddled under the porch and later in the yard, obviously weak and sick. Her respiration rate was up but I did not notice any abnormal breathing sounds. I brought her in in the evening - and she died around 9pm. There are no signs of mites, trauma - and even her comb and waddles were not gray - maybe only a little dull. For a few days her poop had been a little runny and yellow - not much poo substance, mostly the urates. She is on a regular pellet diet with a handful of scratch each day and plenty of water. Her crop was empty yesterday when I gave her a mini-exam. The flock has a history of Mereks - the last three I lost in December/January. I wonder if she has had Mereks, survived, but has a crippled immune system and some kind of influenza swept in and knocked her out.
What could have happened here? Now my other chicken, an Easter Egger, is looking depressed and subdued, and has only laid one egg since we moved her to the new coop. I'm worried she will end up like my Australorp.
I have 5 6-week old chicks that spent an afternoon out with the older chickens about 5 days ago as well - none of them are having any problems and have been returned to a quarantined area. I am worried about my new coop - can moves like that really stress out chickens? Could a new environmental toxin have poisoned them?
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