sad day
we lost our black australorp she was just about a year old...
its odd...
see since she was about 6 months old shes always been the bottom of the totem pole...it got to the point where she had NO feathers from about halfway down her back and over her butt and notheinr we tried got them to grow back...so shes had a nekkid butt since last fall...no lice, only or 2 small scabs but she was either being plucked or ridden the rest of her feathers were lovely...and she was a fairly good layer 5 eggs a week...
the feathers never grew back but shes been eating and actng normal but our egg production dropped a little this past week or so...
yesterday evening mum whent to lock them in for the night and instead of being on the roost with the others she was on the floor...weve found eggs on the floor in the area she was sat so mum thought nothing of it...shed eaten wed seen her drink and shes eaten her mornign treats...
this morning she was in the same spot, mum lifted her and there was an egg...she got up and kind of huffed past mum then just sort of stood there staring at her before going to a different corner and just sitting down again...
mum put the treats in the pen and everyone whent running...except ronny...she just kind of walked past and stared blankly at the feeder, making no attmept to ge tthe treats or fresh food...
then this afternoonmum found her cold at the side of the ramp to the pop door
i checked her over, no physical signs of trauma, crop was pretyt much empty, no odd bloating, swelling ect...
short of a necropsy i have no idea and i dont have the fcility or chicken biology knowledge to do a necropsy.
the other chickens are all eating, running round, chasing bugs ect.
theres nothing in or within reach of their pen that could be poisenous/dangerous, where she was found is covered so nothing from above...no wounds scabs ect...
and after getting only 4 eggs for the past few days we got 6 out of 9 chickens today so we loose one and egg production goes up.
i think im going to deworm them as a just in case (they have acess to DE but we avoid chemicals whenever possible otherwise...)
and im wondering if its worth treating them with a water soluable vitamine or antibiotic or something as a just in case...
other than having no feathers on her butt she seemed to be a very healthy chicken, and up untill yesterday early evening was running round with the rest of them.
its a closed flock, no other birds in since we got them as day olds, we havent been around any other chickens, wild birds ect to bring nayhting in...we do obviously get wild birds in the garden but the areas not known for many communicable illnesses and the other girls seem fine...
its just soooo weird. especially since she was a good sized chunky girl and the feathers she had left (tail wings and everything form the "waist" up) were shiney black with no damage dullness flaking ect...
thoughts?
in other news...not much going on right now...