Sadly yesterday we lost another hen, this time not to Mr Fox. One of them went off a bit when we had the hot weather, all sulky and fed up, but quite quickly recovered. The day after she got better one of the other ones went down in a similar way. Up until 3 days ago she was perching at night and would come out and sit in the sun but wouldn't eat much (although she was drinking quite a lot). As with many animals they hide being unwell well. She seemed perky but just wasn't eating. We checked to see if she had an egg stuck (egg bound, it does happen and can be resolved, and you should be able to feel a hard lump in their abdomen near the vent where the eggs come out) but couldn't feel anything. She had had scaley leg mite (which makes the scales on their legs lift up and can be quite nasty) but we had treated that. They had never been wormed as I had understood that free range birds don't get worm problems often, but we did decide to do this and they are all now being treated. Over the last days when she wouldn't come out of the hen house we had taken to feeding her with a syringe (you try getting a chicken to open her beak if they don't want to, beaks are sharp!). She would take a little from the syringe but not enough to keep a body going. She did have a nice earth worm or two I found for her on Friday (the things you do) and M gave her a warm bath which she also seemed to like. However, although she remained perky and bright eyed (some illnesses you can tell from the state of the eyes and the nostrils) she really didn't get better. On Friday we started to have the conversation around whether we should put her out of her misery.
Now, this is a tricky one; neither of us have ever dispatched a bird (we have helped our friend do it before when having ducks for tea!) but never done it ourselves and it something you really don't want to get wrong! Also she seemed so responsive, if she had been bleary and drowsy the decision would have been easier. Finally, we had been hand feeding her, treating her as a pet despite trying so hard not to see them as pets. If you have a lot of hens then they don't become personalities so easily; we never named them in case something happened to them; hens are short lived generally and they do get diseases and problems and Mr Fox sees to some of them. Despite all this, at the end of the day dispatching her seemed a bit like treachery, even though we would have put an end to any suffering, and although she didn't look like she was suffering she must have been. Anyway we fed her in the afternoon yesterday and she was getting drowsy, in fact sitting in my arms she was closing her eyes and I thought she was going to die then. We put her down and the flapped her wings, looked about, head high and walked to the nest box (where she had taken up residence). 30 minutes later I went back to check on her and she was dead. Very sad, but at least it was over and at least (from a selfish point of view) we hadn't had to do the deed ourselves.
The next question is, what killed her? She hadn't been laying for a few days before she got sick and one hen (we don't know which one) had been laying soft shelled eggs just before this. Although I got high marks for dissection when at school and am keen to do my own butchery (cutting up bit you understand) I really cannot bring myself to do an autopsy; apart from the truth that she was a pet, I am not that familiar with avian anatomy so probably wouldn't be able to find out anyway. We think that she may have been the one laying soft shelled eggs and either one broke inside her (which results in egg peritonitis and can kill a hen) or that a broken egg damaged her insides and that resulted in an infection. Thankfully the other two are fit and healthy, they were a bit unsettled when they went to bed last night; there were 4 on the perch at night, then 3 and now 2, they must notice that there are others missing. We will get more, we will have to for more eggs and so that these two aren't on their own, you don't want something to happen to another one and then be left with one hen.
So ultimately in terms of treating our limited 'stock' as stock and not pets we have failed. In time we will have more hens, a lot more and then hopefully the loss of one or two won't be felt so keenly. It is a lesson for us and one we need to remember and learn from if we are to have other stock in the future.
Now, this is a tricky one; neither of us have ever dispatched a bird (we have helped our friend do it before when having ducks for tea!) but never done it ourselves and it something you really don't want to get wrong! Also she seemed so responsive, if she had been bleary and drowsy the decision would have been easier. Finally, we had been hand feeding her, treating her as a pet despite trying so hard not to see them as pets. If you have a lot of hens then they don't become personalities so easily; we never named them in case something happened to them; hens are short lived generally and they do get diseases and problems and Mr Fox sees to some of them. Despite all this, at the end of the day dispatching her seemed a bit like treachery, even though we would have put an end to any suffering, and although she didn't look like she was suffering she must have been. Anyway we fed her in the afternoon yesterday and she was getting drowsy, in fact sitting in my arms she was closing her eyes and I thought she was going to die then. We put her down and the flapped her wings, looked about, head high and walked to the nest box (where she had taken up residence). 30 minutes later I went back to check on her and she was dead. Very sad, but at least it was over and at least (from a selfish point of view) we hadn't had to do the deed ourselves.
The next question is, what killed her? She hadn't been laying for a few days before she got sick and one hen (we don't know which one) had been laying soft shelled eggs just before this. Although I got high marks for dissection when at school and am keen to do my own butchery (cutting up bit you understand) I really cannot bring myself to do an autopsy; apart from the truth that she was a pet, I am not that familiar with avian anatomy so probably wouldn't be able to find out anyway. We think that she may have been the one laying soft shelled eggs and either one broke inside her (which results in egg peritonitis and can kill a hen) or that a broken egg damaged her insides and that resulted in an infection. Thankfully the other two are fit and healthy, they were a bit unsettled when they went to bed last night; there were 4 on the perch at night, then 3 and now 2, they must notice that there are others missing. We will get more, we will have to for more eggs and so that these two aren't on their own, you don't want something to happen to another one and then be left with one hen.
So ultimately in terms of treating our limited 'stock' as stock and not pets we have failed. In time we will have more hens, a lot more and then hopefully the loss of one or two won't be felt so keenly. It is a lesson for us and one we need to remember and learn from if we are to have other stock in the future.
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