Would a change of food cause a sudden vent prolapse?

[UrbanEgg]

I changed my 3 hens food from layer crumble to flock raiser crumble over the course of a week and started putting out free choice oyster shell like I was told by some on here I could do. I did this so that I could soon put my eight 11 week old chicks in with the hens and have them all be able to eat the same food. That was only about a week ago I started the change and I havent' even integrated the chicks yet and suddenly my oldest hen had a horrible vent prolapse and was bleeding profusely. She's very old and hasn't layed in a long time. I did find one really soft egg yesterday in the pen (her color--all 3 lay different colors right now) and it squished when I picked it up. We were already planning to cull her because she's old and half blind (only has 1 eye now) and she doesn't lay anymore--we just don't have room and we want to exclusively eat eggs from our own chickens so we need enough room for all laying birds. So we did that sad deed last night so she wouldn't suffer anymore--only a few days before we were going to do it anyways. Oh--and when we culled the old hen, we found her full of egg yolk and she was very fatty. We don't give them many treats--mostly a few table scraps of fruits and veggies a few times a week and a handful or 2 of scratch thrown in once a day or overy other day.

But now I'm concerened. Is it just because she was an old bird any trying to lay an egg again? Or could the change to flock raiser with the introduction of oyster shell have done it? The other 2 are still laying and the one's vent looked a little puffy (the other really old one) but the 1 year old looked totally fine. I just wanted to be able to put them all together without harming the baby chicks with too much calcium in their food. HELP!

ETA I don't think it was a bad batch of food--my chicks have been on it a few weeks and are thriving and growing like weeds.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

it's not the food, just her time that's all.

 

[UrbanEgg]

Thanks for the reply--I've been watching all day for some reassurance that it wasn't the food! I got so nervous about it, I pulled the feeder and gave them a bowl of thier layer crumble just in case this morning.

So now the question--is she safe to eat? We cleaned her all up last night and my dh (who is a foodie) said we should make coc au vin (usually an old rooster is used because they are tough).

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

well, I wouldn't eat her but that's just me personally. It sounds like a physical break down and not an invasive viral/bacterial or fungal thing so it is most likely safe to eat her. My chioce would be to recycle her as pet food.
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katy