Hi everyone,
Apologies if this belongs in a different section! I wasn’t sure if Hen House or Chicken Chat was more appropriate.
Just looking for some advice really from some experienced chicken keepers like yourselves. I have 8 Rhode Island hens, 4 (‘The OG Girls’) I got from a local farm at 20 weeks old last April and 4 (‘The Ex-Bats’) whom I rescued from culling in June after living in battery hen conditions. They are all roughly the same age. This morning I suffered a devastating loss when I found one of my ‘OG girls’ (as I fondly refer to them as) sadly dead underneath her perch.
I’ve had what I believed to be an impacted/sour crop problem with one of my ex-bats this week. She was lethargic, puffed up, kept herself to herself and whenever I felt her crop it was squidgey whereas all 7 of my other girls had firm crops. After some reading I massaged her crop 3-4 times a day, fed her olive oil, Nettex drops, Actimel and maggots. After a few days she perked up and now she’s right as reign. However, then the OG girl who has passed began displaying the same behaviour.
I first noticed something was amiss when it was evident she had moved down a few positions in the pecking order this week. Since acquiring my 4 ex-bats in June, the pecking order has been pretty stable. Top 4 are the OG girls; they’re feistier. Bottom 4 are the ex-bats; naturally they’re a bit quieter and nervier due to their horrendous past. We have a coop attached to a shed to house the girls and the OG girls sleep in the coop together on a perch and the ex-bats sleep on a perch in the shed. That’s nothing I’ve forced - just something they’ve worked out together. I check on the girls every night when locking them away just to make sure they’re all in there and I’m not missing anybody, as you can imagine with 8 girls it can get difficult to account for everybody unless you’re vigorous! When I had done my nighttime checks this week, I discovered that the since passed OG girl was now sleeping on the shed perch with 3 of the ex bats and one of the ex bats had taken her place in the coop.
Anyway, she had been a bit under the weather yesterday. I noticed that she was last out of the coop when I let them out in the morning which is very strange because normally she’d be outraged to be the last out. She looked a bit puffed up and a bit lethargic and kind of stayed to herself like my ex-bat a few days previous but she was eating fine. I left her to her own devices as I had felt her crop and it was fine and then suspected that it was down to molting because a few of my other girls have already gone through it this year. The fact she was reluctant to be handled by me when I was checking her crop confirmed my suspicions because she’s normally fine to be picked up, given the once over and petted and I had read that molting girls can find handling uncomfortable due to their new feathers coming through being sensitive.
When I did my nighttime lockup check last night, she was in the corner of the shed all puffed up on the floor. Sometimes my girls can take to the floor so I wasn’t really concerned, although did find it odd, considering her ritual of always sleeping in the coop with her sisters already having been broken this week. I decided to pick her up and place her on the perch with the ex bats, said goodnight and closed the door. This morning, when I opened the coop door, she didn’t appear, although the other 7 did. Concerned, obviously, I opened the shed access door for myself and found her dead on the floor underneath the perch, her head slumped against the plastic dog bed I have in there acting as one of the nesting boxes.
I held her in my arms for a good 20 minutes. I had a little cry but I did note how well she looked. Her comb was bright red, she was a healthy weight and she’s always looked after herself and been a pretty bird. I treat the coop with mite spray every time I clean it up and I’ve inspected her and can’t see any mites. The only thing I will say is she had a few bubbles around her eyes when I found her but she definitely did not have any symptoms like that yesterday and neither did my other ex-bat who was ill this week.
We haven’t buried or cremated her yet. She’s in a basket lay on a towel in the summer house. I don’t believe there is any vets near me who will perform a post mortem. Shall I wait and see what happens with the rest of my girls? The rest (even the ex-bat who was ill earlier this week) are completely fine. They have ACV and Poultry Drink supplements in their waterers. Their feed is a mixed combination of Layers mash, corn, oyster shells, mixed grit and poultry spice. I fed the rest of my girls some scrambled eggs mixed with oregano and garlic this afternoon just out of worry if it is disease related as obviously the eggs are good for protein and the herbs are natural antibiotics. I must also admit that during my frantic googling today I’ve discovered that my girls aren’t actually wormed. I’ve stupidly believed that Verm-X is a wormer when apparently it’s nothing more than the poultry spice in the sense that it’s just herbs and spices that help with their digestive health but don’t prevent worms?
I suppose I’m posting this for some advice because I’m at an absolute loss on what has happened to my poor girl. It was so sudden. I have read up today on some instances of hens falling off the perches in the middle of the night and dying from the shock? Could she have been a bit lethargic due to molting and the fall from the perch has killed her? Or do her symptoms sound like anything else you’ve ever heard of? Can I purchase anything to help the rest of my flock?
Thanks so much for your help in advance everybody!