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Lost our first hen today [sad]

3 replies

bananabrain · 26/05/2010 22:01

Longish story but I wonder if anyone can suggest any reasons/ ways to prevent in future...
I noticed yesterday that she wasn't keen to jump over the edge of her run to get out into the larger area, but once I had helped her out she seemed fine - eating very enthusiastically. Then last night I spotted her sitting still in middle of lawn, no effort to move when I picked her up. She still ate a bit of food when I put it in front of her so I just popped her into bed hoping she'd feel better by today.
This morning it was clear she wasn't at all well - not eating or moving. I put her in a box near the house and kept trying to persuade her to eat or drink, but no luck. I couldn't feel any egg-bound bulge or impacted-crop bulge - she did feel very thin though. I managed to put a bit of water into her beak with a syringe, but sadly she died at lunch time.
I think it's possible she had worms as she felt so thin - we have used Vermex but I will treat the others with Flubenvet now incase it was that. She was an ex-batt, we'd had her for a year, so I suppose she might have just died of old age.
Don't know if I could have done anything else?

OP posts:
nickelbabe · 27/05/2010 10:52

yes, do use flubenvet - most keeper s concur that verm-x is worse than useless (it's okay as prevention, but if you have worms, it's no good)(not you have worms, your chickens!)

ex-batts do just seem to die for no reason at all.
our Sandra did the same thing - she was fine then she just gave up living - quite literally, she just faded away; stopped eating, drinking etc and just stood in a corner feeling sorry for herself.
if she was an ex-batt, i bet it was just the same thing - it's a bit like those perpetual criminals - they get released ffrom prison but they can't hack it on the outside and keep committing crimes to get back inside - but the chickens can't go back inside, so they get depression and fade.

it's awful.
you just have to remember that for the past year you've given her a fab home, nice food that she didn't have to fight over, somewhere to perch, somewhere to nest and a solid ground to stand on.

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 27/05/2010 10:58

Agree with nickelbabe. It sounds like your girl had just reached the end of her natural lifespan . Take heart from the fact that the last part of her life was infinitely better than the start, and that she lived out her life in peace and comfort.

bananabrain · 27/05/2010 18:22

Thanks to you both. It makes me feel better that I probably couldn't have prevented it, and I am happy that we were able to give her a nice year.
She is now buried under a gooseberry bush! I did say to DP that maybe we shouldn't start burying our chickens when they die, as we might end up in a few years with a garden full, but he insisted that our first three are! He's more soppy than me !
And I will buy some flubenvet just in case.

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