[Helenaj]

One of my lovely Ixworth's died tonight. She was only 13 weeks old and was lovely - so friendly and just generally "naughty". I'm gutted, so upset.
She was perfectly okay when I let her out this morning, I always hand feed her and her two sisters every morning as they are the friendliest hens I've got, raised from the egg up. At 5 o'clock I went to give them their afternoon corn and she was standing in the corner, gaping but was still lively. I dosed her with wormer just in case as they've only had Verm X and not Flubenvet and thought I'd give her an hour or two for the wormer to work. When I went back up at 7pm she was down on the floor, so I picked her up and brought her down the house where I could keep a closer eye on her and take her to the vet tomorrow. Sadly, she passed away.

Anybody have any idea as to what it could have been to act so quickly, as I'm terrified the others may get it. They were perfectly fine but I'm going to worm the whole flock tomorrow with Flubenvet just to make sure. Could this have been gapeworm and can it kill so quickly?

[louiseb22]

I'm afraid I don't know enough myself to diagnose but I'm sure someone will be along shortly who can help.
I'm sorry she has gone, I know it can be very upsetting.

[joyfull]

sadly flubenvet takes several days to work so if it was worms her little body just couldn't cope any longer  . Keep the course up for the others for another 6 days.
Without a post mortem there is really no way of telling what she died of and for a good post mortem they need a live bird which is culled just before the pm or at a push that has died within an hour.

[Helenaj]

I just can't understand that if it was worms it happened so quickly. I make a special fuss of my Ixworths as they are my favourites and up until yesterday she was fine, no gaping whatsoever. I always use Verm X on my younger birds because they don't mix with my older birds or go free range until they are 11-12 weeks old (I keep them in a 12x8 shed). She'd only been out with the others about 10 days, so I can't understand how a worm burden could have been created so quickly. Could the recent thunderstorms brought on some stress condition? Yesterday, we did have an almighty thunder and lightening storm which felt as if it moved the house at one point.

[joyfull]

there is no proof that verm-x works at eradicating worms even though several of us have asked for scientific proof the manufacturers have never responded. Flubenvet though does have proof.
If there was a thunderstorm it can have an effect on behavior however I doubt that this would make them gape.

[LittleRedHen]

I'm so terrribly sorry for your loss.  You must be heart broken.  We had a hen that went down in two days and it turned out to be her heart.  Her comb had turned all dark and she panted a bit.