[Mr R Design]

I have just picked something up that having had Google appears to be a small intestine, it is about one and a half foot long and definitely not a worm.

I know who it has come from and I think will shortly be sending her to chicken heaven.

Any initial comments please, she is just under two years old and started to lay this year about 10 days ago.

[8doubles]

Could it have belonged to a frog ?

Suprised it had not been eaten by the hens whatever it came from.

[Mr R Design]

No, bits of blood in the run and the one who has passed it is just sitting around with with a slight discharge around her vent

[Mr R Design]

Oh well Henrietta is no longer with us but at least I know what we are having for tea later.

I would still be interested to know what can cause a chicken to pass its intestines though.

RIP Henrietta

[snowdrops]

Oh poor Henrietta, are you eating her then?

[Mr R Design]

All prepared and in the fridge.

Hey ho bit sad but at least she had a better life than one from Sainsburys.

[New shoot]

Poor Henrietta 

Small pieces of gut lining do sometimes appear in droppings, but this sounds more serious than that.  There is a possibility it is coccidiosis.  There is some info here, but if you have other birds, I would be keeping a very close eye on them.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=4345.msg48355#msg48355

Maybe also call a poultry friendly vet and get some advice, if there is one near you.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=26140.msg309638#msg309638

Its probably too late from reading your posts, but generally the advice is not to consume a hen that had just died or become so ill it needed to be culled, without knowing the cause of the illness. 

[Mr R Design]

Thanks for that New Shoot and I had looked at that before for some clues.

I have done some more research and what she had passed appears to be the whole of her small intestine (small as about a foot and half long)

I change their litter tray (for sake of a better word) directly below their perches at least once a week and have a poke around and nothing over the preceding time in the quality of droppings indicated any concern. Eating, drinking and boisterousness wise she was no different until it happened.

The sequence of events from what I can surmise where, went to lay an egg (but didn't) and exited the egg box leaving a small drop of blood, started to walk down the ramp and passed her intestine on the ramp and then just sat huddled up in a corner. 

The other two seem fine and I had all three together from 'The Gobbett' Kidderminster and they have been inoculated.

I can't seem to find anything on the internet as to why a chickens small intestine can become detached from the gizzard and it does not appear to have been caused by an egg getting stuck as she did not lay one that day and there was no preformed hard shelled egg inside her when I looked.

[danfinn1]

Interesting you ate Henrietta Did she taste ok .  When I was little in the fifties we used to hear about people buying "Old Boilers" these were the hens that had stopped laying, had liitle meat on them and it would be tough.

[Mr R Design]

The amount of meat was about the same as a small chicken from the supermarket.

The texture was like a pair of old boots but hey ho you have to try these things.

[8doubles]

The amount of meat was about the same as a small chicken from the supermarket.

The texture was like a pair of old boots but hey ho you have to try these things.

Did you slow cooker it ? I think most ex layer meat spends  half a day in a tenderiser before cooking.

Good for you for giving it a try !