What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

Ceppy wonton, my lavender pekin and favourite chicken, has died.

 

OH went out to feed them this morning and says he found her in the run and was stiff, so had been there a while and had fresh blood on her feathers, and around her bottom and tail had more blood. He thinks she broke or had a blood feather pecked. We have also had some red mite lately which has been receding, but it looks like more blood than that. He is concerned that maybe the other two who live with her pecked her, but she has always come across as top chicken.

 

Any theories? Is blood feather breakage normal or possible? They have always got on well.

 

Dang upset about it. Pregnancy hormones and dead chickens do not mix. Am concerned now that the same could happen to others.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear it.

 

Maybe she had a prolapse, and her companions pecked at it?

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

I've just been out to see the corpse (OH thought it would be a bad idea with my hormones) but I think his feather peck is way off the mark. Her hole (forgotten the technical term) is distended and purple, and looks a little bloody. There is a whitish lump just inside (poo?) so I would say it was a bum problem. Are there common bum problems? Could be prolapse couldn't it? Is there anything that can be done to avoid it in future? Is it just one of those things?

[Charlottechicken]

Sorry about your chicken.

 

I'm not a vent expert but having kept a lot of small animals in the past know that after death, bowels and bladder tend to expel anything in them, so could this be the reason for the poo in the vent?

 

It must be distressing not knowing how she died

 

How old was she?

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

15 months. Not old.

[scarlettohara]

So sorry about your pekin - I lost mine this week

[jennydavies]

We had a lovely little Black Rock hen that suffered a prolapse, we were unsuccessful in getting the prolapse to return inside the vent and by the following morning the skin outside of the vent had gone black (in effect - died) she was very poorly and we had to call a good friend to despatch her. It sounds as if your little hen may have suffered the same but died before you needed to take action. I did some research afterwards and it would appear they very rarely recover after a prolapse. So sad and sorry for your loss.

Jenny and Charlie, xx