Warm boot recommendations please

[Christian]

If you've had a much loved chicken die and would like to leave a little memorial in this topic, please feel free to do so here. Photographs, memories, anything you like but we'll leave sympathy messages out if you don't mind, so that the topic doesn't become too diluted and remains just a nice place to remember lost hens.

 

Posts about chickens who have passed on will be moved into this section in due course......after 48 hours.

[Janty]

Sporty Spice, one of my original girls, passed away last night. She had been looking old for a week or so but got very weak suddenly. We snuggled her up in a warm blanket last night and cuddled her, making her last hours peaceful and comfortable.

 

The neighbours are just as upset as we are. She used to lead Ginger Spice into their gardens, raiding their grass and flowers but they loved her.

 

Finally, who can forget the lovely photo of Sporty wearing the Christmas hat.

 

 

 

Night night girl.

 

xxx

[Cooks]

Sugar gone but never forgotten

 

(an early photo but one of my favourites)

[beach chick]

went to let the girls out at normal time, and they were making a racket which is unusual. opened the door, and they all came out - except Meringue. so I had a look through the egg hole, and she was just lying there dead, looked as if she went in her sleep. no marks on her or anything.

 

she was probably the worst affected by the current sneezing problem, but seemed to be fine apart from that, and certainly I didnt notice anything unusual with her - eating, drinking, dustbathing etc.

 

they are all on tylan at the moment; I louse powdered them at the w/e, cant help feeling that one or other of these might be to do with it? probably just that she'd reached her time, but she was only about 18mths old. she hadnt laid for AGES, and I assumed she was eating her eggs, but maybe there was something underlying I didnt pick up?

 

going to phone the vet later, for now I've got her safely in the shed. I'm not the type to cry over the chooks, but it was a bit of a shock and I do feel a bit wobbly. bad start to the day.

[Nicola O]

Lost Gertie to peritonitis today .

 

She hadn't laid for about a month as she was having a mini moult so I wasn't overly concerned, she still had the brightest red comb and wattles, ate, drank etc., she just looked a bit scruffy but I noticed on Sunday she was very quiet and not eating, and when I checked her over she was very swollen underneath, and her poo turned bright green.

 

I got her to the vet first thing Monday and the poor girl had to go through quite an intensive finger probe and they kept her in to drain the fluid. She was aparently doing really well - the nurse rang early afternoon to say she was responding well, had eaten, and was strutting round the cage shouting to everyone who walked past, but a couple of hours later the vet rang to say she had suddenly gone all quiet and quickly passed away.

 

I feel really guilty that I hadn't checked her over sooner, and that I shouldn't have assumed it was just a moult that had stopped her laying. She was still a young bird - not yet two years old - and should have had a lot of time left.

 

Night night little one.....

 

Nicola

[Rona]

Got home from shopping this afternoon and found that Cava had died. She hadn't been too perky of late (unless mealworms or strawberries were around) but I think she was just old. She was always bottom of the pecking order - a polite and gentle little girl.

[Mrs Webmuppet]

Little Scurry our lavender Pekin has popped off her mortal perch.

 

She had been looking a bit tired and slow the last few days and yesterday I brought her indoors and made her comfy in the pet carrier. She wolfed down some banana and other treats then spent the rest of the day asleep. When I got home from work this morning she was fast asleep but when Mr Webmuppet got up she had passed away peacefully in her sleep.

 

He took her to the vet to check that she hadn't died of anything infectious but the vet seemed to think it was kidney failure.

 

RIP Scurry.

[Boybeck]

Poor old Jay dropped off the mortal coil this afternoon. She has always been my sickly bird every since I got my three ISA Browns a year ago.

 

Edited July 21, 2009 by Guest

[mostin]

We lost our 1st ex-batt yesterday.

 

Our lovely Blossom has gone to the great big chicken coop in the sky . She came to us on the 2nd of May, here she was

 

 

 

 

We had her for nearly 3 months but it feels a lot longer. She feathered up quite a lot but still didn't manage to get to heaven with a full set of knickers on , I hope they excuse her.

 

 

 

 

This is her as she became, with bright eyes, and the feathers she did have were shiny and well kept.

 

Sleep well my little girl, I know the human race didn't treat you very well, but I hope the 3 months you spent with me made up for some of that. I'll miss you.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[tom123]

Poppy died in her sleep last night, fine yesterday

 

 

RIP Poppy

 

 

 

 

Thanks

Tom

[tidygirlsuk]

Jeffrey died today

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey on the left, with his lady and the chicks

[Leicester_H]

Chikki had to be put to sleep - can't write any more right now.

H

[alih]

Just been to check on Pumpkin and she has gone. Very blue comb all of a sudden. AM devastated as she was my oldest and only remaining Omlet. She was feisty and beautiful and will be sorely missed. RIP Pumpkin

 

We had a lovely weekend in Barcelona, but it was strange to come back to only 4 chickens. Thank gooodness they all seem fine. I think Pumpkin must have caught something as she went downhill so fast.

 

Here are a couple of reminders of her:

 

 

[Sara-W]

Yesterday morning I opened the pophole for my 16 week old chicks and only 5 came out, my poor little Agatha had died I am very upset She had been free ranging with her sisters all day, eating and drinking normally and chasing the ducks as she always did. Agatha was the smallest of all the chicks and didn't seem to be growing as well as the others, I miss her terribly Last night when the chicks were put to bed they all huddled together on the left hand side of the hen house when they have been sleeping for 2 months on the right hand side (where Agatha died )

I am so sad that I have lost her

Sara

Endora Sally Henny Penny Esme

Evelyn Enid Sybil Queenie Mildred RIP Little Agatha

Delilah Jemimah Lola

[SleepyFairy]

Very sadly decided to have Peach put to sleep today at the vet's

 

She was very skinny and very sad so I think it was the best decision.

 

Thanks to all of you who kindly offered advice in the last few weeks and allowed me to help her in every way I could while she was with us.

 

Love to all and your chickens

 

Jules x x x

 

RIP Peach

[tidygirlsuk]

I've lost four chicks this week. They where killed by a stoat we think.

 

They all hatched in June

 

Pingu II - Plymouth Rock pullet

Posh - Silver Grey Dorking pullet

Pecks - Silver Grey Dorking cockerel

Chickpea - Cream Crested Legbar pullet

 

Rest in Peace my babies

[annettec]

We lost our lovely Golden Silkie Primrose yesterday and can't quite believe how devastated i feel. Mainly feel so guilty though

She was such a friendly chicken and all the children from around popped in just to see her and have a cuddle.

I just wished as a new chicken keeper i had read the signs better. She had not laid for about 8 weeks and was about 10 months old and appeared to be losing weight, otherwise she was behaving normally eating drinking,free ranging dust bathing etc but felt so thin so was offering extra treats and poultry tonic and becuase she was not appearing unwell was not overly concerned. Had wormed them treated for red mite etc How wrong

She was a little more lethargic yesterday and because we are going on holiday next week and a friend also commented on how thin she was i made her a doctors appointment, as the afternoon went on she seemed to be huddling in a corner to avoid the wind head down eyes shut but did follow me up to the shed a good 100ft and than ate a strwberry but was quiet.

I popped her in the box and went off to the vets a 10 minute drive and when i reached the vets, such a shock she couldn't even stand on the table and eyes shut the vet just said that is a very sick chicken.

After many tears and discussion he felt she had gone too far and the journey and not been good, he did offer a Vit B12 injection so i could take her home to say good bye to my daughter (she was her chicken) but looking at her it seemed so cruel. He did not think she would survive tube feeding due to having lost so much weight.

I just wished i had taken the weight loss much more seriously but because she was eating and drinking I will never wait to go to the vets again but within 3 hours of thinking she should be checked out she was gone

RIP Primrose

[sparkysmum]

I posted a topic last night under "Chicken Clinic" to say that Penny was poorly. Although we took her to the vets immediately I reckon she had been trying to pass an egg all day and she was exhausted. She passed away in her Eglu with her ex batt sister & not on her own at the vets. Although we are so sad to lose her, she did have a wonderful year with us in the garden everyday. She was well loved & cared for & we will always remember her as a feisty lady who loved to chase the birds out of her garden & who saw it as her job to keep our Yorkie Daisy in her place.

I posted a photo of her only a couple of days ago & she seemed to be in such good condition. It's hard to believe she's gone. Some batt ladies have such fragile lives - it serves as a terrible reminder of the stress over laying must put on their systems. Allison xx

 

RIP Penny

xx

[mags]

Sadly Princess laya died after I went to work , my DS1 found her on the ground

she was a very sweet little thing , appeared to enjoy the getting blow dried after her bath and was happy to sit on your knee making a funny purring noise.

she appear fit and well last night roaming about the garden ignoring Jess who was sniffing at her and ws 1st out this morning

 

 

RIP

 

Mags

[madchickenlady]

Our tiny red pekin hen, Belinda, sadly died this morning. I went to let them out of the run at 10.30, and found her by the drinker. There were no obvious signs of injury or illness (although she seemed a little flat, but I think this was just the way she was laying and the rigor mortis ) Her vent was clear, she last laid on wednesday, and her crop was empty. She was always the tiniest hen, and I worried terribly when she first came into lay. We've had her exactly a year, and she was a tiny little chick when we got her. She was my youngest son's hen, and he is so upset I feel awful. This is the second hen we've lost this year, and we've only been keeping them since last July. We had to have Delilah put to sleep in March, as she went off her feet and was just wasting away despite several trips to the vet and round the clock care. I keep them very clean, change their water daily, do a health check every week, add supplements to their food and water and am very careful with treats. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong

[Tara123]

Poor Ginger hasn't been well since last week and after making a huge improvement over the beginning of the weekend she lost the fight last night I knew something was wrong this morning as the other girls are making a lot of fuss and keep jumping up on there log to get my attention (which they only usually do when its treat time), as if they were trying to tell me. Poor things are still doing it now even though I've taken her out. She was separated in the WIR using a large dog cage but she could still see her friends and they could still see her. Do you think they know and are sad too? As they're never usually like this in the morning.

[susanbb]

Went out this morning once all the girls were out of the cube to find that Mrs Bridges, my big,beautiful, cuddly cochin had died. there had been no sign of illness so it's a big shock.

The ex-batty girls seem fine, but I'm a bit concerned about Ruby as I got them both when they were 8 weeks old. She seems quite subdued.

 

Sleep well Mrs Bridges. I hope you had a happy 3 years with us.

[susiepoos]

I'm heartbroken this morning as my beautiful Sarah has died. She hadn't been well and I thought that she had a blocked crop last Friday but that seemed to have resolved itself over the weekend. I found her yesterday in the chicken house all by herself huddled on the floor. I brought her inside and wrapped a towel around her because she felt so cold - she perked up late evening - had a drink of water, gave me a peck for disturbing her but when I got up at 5am to check her she had gone.

 

I'm so sad - she was such a little cutie, if the others were up to mischief trying to escape she'd stand by the gate just to prove she wasn't involved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She'd always be the last one to go to bed and sneak into the nesting box instead of going on the perch - I just can't believe she has gone.

[milwichchickenlover]

Lady Madonna our 18 month old died yesterday after a couple of days of being off her food and sleeping a lot. Was about to take her to the vets but she died yesterday afternoon while in a separate pen from the others.

 

Will miss her - not sure what was up with her - but maybe she had worn herself out as she has layed an egg every day for us since last August.

 

RIP Lady Madonna we all miss you!

[SAB]

RIP Edna - little red rescue hen. Passed away peacefully in her sleep in the henhouse, surrounded by her feathered friends. Had a lovely year freed from battery farming (thanks BHWT) - many thanks for the eggs and the memories Edna. Glad you lasted so long with your little squinty body and beak. Missed, but with happy memories.