[mumsy]

Oh dear, sorry to hear that Zak, I do hope you do get the results quickly

[Foxy]

Zak I am so sorry, she does sound poorly, you have done so much though. Good luck with results and keep us posted.

[Zak the Rabbit]

Sadly, she died overnight. :cry:  Im quite glad it was overnight so she will have gone in her sleep. She doesnt show any signs of having been in pain.

Ive checked her over and found no signs of any external parasites or any other obvious problems, and sat with her for a few minutes.

so it must have been something internal. Hopefully the lab at retford will be able to tell me. Either way the remaining three are going to get hit with a cocktail of drugs!

Im a little upset, but it was expected. Perhaps i dont sound too effected in this post, but ive become quite used to dealing with dead small pets over the last decade, when we used to bread guineapigs

[ceri green]

very sorry to hear that zak, and fingers crossed that the remaining hens are all ok x

[mumsy]

Thats a shame, lets hope the results will show an internal problem & nothing else that will affect the others.  Let us know.  Its always sad no matter how many times we deal with it.

[Zak the Rabbit]

I received today the lab report from Retford Poultry.

It seems that a number of infections had taken hold, most likely as a result of her being in a weakend state to start with. The lab performed a Faecal smear, parasitology, bacteriology and mycology tests. These revealed a strong presence of coliform bacteria, with evidence also of campylobacter, coccidiosis and capilliaraisis.

It seems best now to arrange for antibiotics to treat the others as a precaution.


The invoice for this lab work comes to just over £22. In effect a touch pricey for my situation, but if a sample could be got to them quickly before a sick hen is lost then its a small price to pay.