Chicken bald back

[vickichicky]

Hello All,

Yesterday I lost my favourite chicken of all time. My Speckled Sussex - Dumpling.

She was only 17 months old and I hatched her out myself last year. I'm so gutted - she was the most interactive chicken I've ever known, and talked to me all the time as she follwed me around. She loved a cuddle.

About 6 months ago I wormed my girls with Flubenvet as usual, and Dumpling became ill half way through the 7 day course. My Chicken breeder friend came to see her, noticed her yellow poo's and gave me some antibiotics for her from her stock, Dumpling was segregated from the others for this and so didn't finish her course of flubenvet by about 2 days.

This time I wormed them she became ill again - about 4 days in to the course. She became a bit quiet & not her normal bubbly self, and when she did speak to me it was little moans. I kept an eye on her but her poos were normal and she was still eating ok. Sunday when I let my girls out Dumpling was clearly not right, she wouldn't talk, wouldn't eat a much loved meal worm and was just sitting there closing her eyes. She had put herself to bed alone in the spare house the previous 2 nights so I could identify her poo - and they were now a liquid brown. I cuddled her & even gave her head a little kiss I have to admit - as I feared the worst I put her quietly back in the spare house away from the other and kept checking on her. The damned wood man had come to chop down the dead trees behind their run so it wasn't as peaceful as it might have been. On my 2nd check I found her dead I had to just quickly shut the door back up and dash inside for a good cry before going back out later to remove her.

There was nothing obviously wrong. All 10 of the others are fine. It wasn't until I texted my Chicken breeder friend that I remembered her being ill last time I wormed them. Has anyone else had anything like this or a sick chook after worming? I'm so sad to have lost her, and the thought that I may have inadvertly caused her death is making it worse.

[Salop Chuck]

So sorry to hear about your sad loss of Dumpling. I have never heard of this happening before and wondered if a post mortem would reveal anything about the cause of death. It is really awful to lose a much loved hen that you have developed a special bond with and I hope you get some answers.

 

Hugs

[mollyripkim]

No advice I am afraid but wanted to say how sorry I am that you lost Dumpling, you must be devastated especially as you hatched her and we all have favourites. Sending hugs. Xx

[Olly]

Really sorry to hear it.

 

I have never heard of a chicken dying after worming - Flubenvet is used by many of us on here without problems however, and I am inclined to say that it was just a very unlucky coincidence that she became ill after worming on each occasion. If she needed antibiotics on the first occasion, then it doesn't sound as if that was anything to do with the wormer.

 

Really sorry that you've had this experience, but as we all know sometimes hens die without any obvious reason or warning - I doubt that it was anything you had done.

[Mrs_B]

I am sorry to hear you lost your girl, especially your favourite

 

I am sure you did everything you could for her. Chickens hide illness very well. If only they could let us know what's wrong so we could act on it!! My hen I lost recently was positive for coccidia but it seems after a PM other problems caused her to die as she was at risk due to the cocci

 

Keep your chin up, hugs being sent your way x

[Snowy]

I'm so sorry to hear about Dumpling

 

Have you thought about contacting the makers of Flubenvet? As with any medication, there may be the rare reaction to it, and the manufacturers would know if this was a typical reaction or pure bad luck. Might help to put your mind at rest, and it is always useful for these companies to know about a possible reaction to their product. ((hugs))

[vickichicky]

Thanks very much for the responses.

My first comment to my OH on saturday was - I want a pm done. But come the afternoon when my emotions had calmed down a bit I begun seeing the logistical problems of that. Saturday was a warm day and sunday was meant (it wasn't) to be warmer. I felt a bit ill at the thought of keeping her body somewhere safe until Monday when I could get it to the vets, so I let the OH talk me into cremating her I know this isn't strictly correct proceedure, but we have an incinerator and it burns really hot with some pallets from work. If it had been a week day I most definately would have had a pm done.

I do think your comment about contacting the flubenvet manufacturers was a good one though Snowy - I will do that. It may well just be a co-incidence but a friendly email just putting it to them couldn't hurt. If there is a tiny minority that do react to it they may know or want to know if not.

I'm not sure the antibiotics she had last time she was ill made her better - or if it's the fact that she never completed the whole course of wormer. She only had 3/4 days worth not the whole 7 days as this time. Her symptoms were exactly the same. I guess I'll never know.

I'm still missing her - had a lump in my throat last night as I shut them up as there was just 2 quiet hen houses. She used to coo at me from inside as soon as she heard me open the door to the WIR.

Maybe later this month I'll see if my friend has any more Speckled Sussex available (I bought the hatching eggs from her last year) as my pair totally sold the breed to me.

I've already got 2 Buff Columbian Brahma bantams on order, I think I may add a Speckled Sussex for Dumplings sister Murghi to pair back up with.

 

If I have a response from the Flubenvet peoples I'll update you all.

Thanks again