Part 0800.0005

[Suzana]

Hello,

I'm very sad today, I lost my 7-month Wyandotte yesterday and I can't figure out what happened. 

She was one of three chickens and everything has been absolutely normal for the past weeks. She was laying  3 to 4 eggs/ week, her last egg was Monday 24th.

I first noticed something was different on Tuesday when she spent a lot of time laying (about 3 hours), I thought at first she was starting to get broody, but otherwise her behavior was normal.

So yesterday morning, she came out of the coop with the others but was somewhat strange, not her enthusiastic self at feeding time. I noticed her bum was dirty, white and yellow, las if she had diarrhea. I left for work and when I got back in the evening she was in a shady corner hardly moving at all and there was some yellow liquid oozing from her vent.

I bathed her with water, and looking closely to her bum, i thought it was too tender to the touch and she protested a little. I couldn't feel any egg, but right then she convulsed and died. It was awful because so unexpected and fast. 

What could have happened? Could she have eaten something that poisoned her, could it have been a stuck egg and I made it worse by bathing her?

Anyway, it's my first experience with chickens, I've had them since May, but I got  very attached to them. The other two seem fine for now, but it bothers me a lot just not to know what happened.

[Beantree]

Sorry to hear that Suzana. It's always a shock when they go quickly, but really that's the best way. It sounds like a burst egg with the shell remaining inside her. She would have done a lot of exhausting pushing to get it out and that effort could easily lead to a heart attack, which is what I guess happened. Bathing her would normally help as it relaxes the muscles and often leads to a stuck egg popping out and it is important to keep her bottom clean anyway, to avoid fly strike. So nothing you could have done differently.

[Suzana]

Thank you very much.