Single hen

[SillyClucker]

Her name was Plod because she was copper coloured. She was a most affectionate chicken who would rather jump up on my arm and be stroked than scoff food with the others. She will be deeply missed.

 

For your information I have just got the results of the post mortem that Neil Horton of the Brookmead surgery in Cranleigh performed. His diagnosis, which has been confirmed by one of his colleagues and DEFRA is Ovarian Ademocarcimona. This is a form of cancer which produces small tumours which spread on contact to the adjacent organs which almost certainly started in the oviduct. The disease is not contagious thankfully. Regrettably there was nothing we could have done to save her, apparently her whole body including the lining of her body cavity was riddled with it. Can I just say that the results of the PM were delivered to me within 3 hours and the research and double checking of the diagnosis were much appreciated. All that for £20 seems very worth it to me.

 

Up until the last 24 hours of her life she showed no signs of the condition. She was probably a little slower when running for treats but continued to eat, drink, preen, dustbath as usual. Perhaps the only real thing she showed which was out of the ordinary was she went to bed early.

 

Yesterday she didn't come out of the Eglu. She couldn't stand up and was breathing very deeply with her beak open. We took her indoors and I got some water into her. Her comb went a very dark red and she stayed very quiet for the whole day. We knew she wasn't going to make it and when the others had gone to bed we slipped her into the Eglu with them. She went during night and was cold in the morning.

 

I wanted to write this so that others might learn from Plods illness and so that through the internet she will live on in a sort of way. Although she will always be in our memories.

 

Ovarian Ademocarcimona

 

RIP Ploddy

[SAB]

RIP Ploddy.

 

Hugs to you and your family.

[Daphne]

Sorry to hear that. But thank you for posting about something most of us have never heard of; its very useful. RIP Ploddy.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear it.

[sandyhas3chucks]

I can only imagine how you are feeling. They are great there aren't they. Thinking of you & Ploddy, bless her

[westleigh]

feel for you all xxxxxxx

[Chickvic]

Sorry to hear about Ploddy

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'm so sorry to hear about little Plod . It's good that you know exactly what caused her death though so you don't have to worry about your other girls getting it.

[SillyClucker]

Firstly, thanks for all your kind words. Yes its nice to know the others are not going to catch anything. As we all know they can disguise their illnesses very well but there are little signs which aren't always obvious. I will certainly be alerted if any of our other chooks start going into the Eglu early at night and not keeping up with others when a food rush occurs. The other thing that goes through your mind is "is it something that i have done" and/or "could i have done anything about it". In this case I feel a bit relieved that there was no fault in our chicken keeping husbandry(sp?).

 

Thanks again everyone.

[Gamebird]

So sorry to hear about Ploddy.

[Plum]

Sorry to hear you lost your girl.

[Guest]

night night little ploddy, thanks for sharing this, just goes to show resiliant they are doesn't it, that she showed no signs of it until the very late stages

[chelsea]

sorry to hear about Ploddy.

[Redwing]

Really sorry about your girl