chrismahon
Well-known member
Had a real shock days ago during the early morning coop cleaning. One of our young Leghorn Bantams (Poppy) was lying 'dead' on the floor. No signs of life at all but not stone cold, so she must have died in the last hour. She was fine the previous evening and was roosting on her usual perch. We lost another from that group late last year- Snowdrop had a digestive impaction caused by eating wood shavings soaked in her own egg yolk we think? Unfortunately this now leaves just one hen (Daisy) and creates more problems. Poppy was taken inside and laid in a tray ready for burial. The next shock was she was still breathing faintly! First thought was to warm her up so I popped her into my shirt and set up a heat mat. After an hour she was breathing better and seemed warm enough, but still no movement and eyes closed.
Then she started panting heavily and was clearly overheating. The heat mat was turned off and a fan used to blow air over her but she was getting worse. A check of her under-wing temperature said an incredible 41.7C at which point she should be dead. We resorted to 50mg crushed aspirin washed down with 1mL of water- difficult to do because she couldn't swallow. Over the next few hours her temperature dropped to a fairly normal 38C, but still no movement. Then she started to 'leak' some truly revolting smelling liquid from her vent. This carried on infrequently to evening, then a check on her produced a surprise egg! At that stage her eyes began to open but still no body movement. We left her tucked up in a blanket overnight, expecting that she wouldn't last the night.
It was a great relief the following morning. Her eyes were open and she was trying to stand. She consumed a huge amount of water and some wet mash, but no poo all day and all the following night, however in the morning- well I've never seen a bantam do that much!
So 4 days on and she is improving. She eats and drinks OK and is talking, but her legs still aren't able to support her for very long, particularly the left which may have been injured when she fell off the perch in the night? She is on Avipro Avian to restore her gut flora which must have been killed with such a low body temperature. Her poo is grainy and not well digested but we're sure she will be fine in a few more days. Then comes the difficult job or re-introduction.
The big question is what happened to her? We've had 4 cases of temporary paralysis in the last year or so and they have all happened after scratching in dead leaves. The presumption was Botulism caused by eating insects from an un-oxygenated environment. All the large fowl involved were not so badly affected and recovered in a day. But Poppy hasn't access to dead leaves and we think she may have eaten a poisonous Processionary Caterpillar. We've taken and destroyed ten nests out of the pine tree above her run, but there may still be some in the ground underneath? As a precaution all the dead leaves near her run, outside the enclosure, have been removed to allow the ground to be aerated.
So is there a lesson to be learned? Guess it's 'chicken keeping can be problematic' is about it!
Then she started panting heavily and was clearly overheating. The heat mat was turned off and a fan used to blow air over her but she was getting worse. A check of her under-wing temperature said an incredible 41.7C at which point she should be dead. We resorted to 50mg crushed aspirin washed down with 1mL of water- difficult to do because she couldn't swallow. Over the next few hours her temperature dropped to a fairly normal 38C, but still no movement. Then she started to 'leak' some truly revolting smelling liquid from her vent. This carried on infrequently to evening, then a check on her produced a surprise egg! At that stage her eyes began to open but still no body movement. We left her tucked up in a blanket overnight, expecting that she wouldn't last the night.
It was a great relief the following morning. Her eyes were open and she was trying to stand. She consumed a huge amount of water and some wet mash, but no poo all day and all the following night, however in the morning- well I've never seen a bantam do that much!
So 4 days on and she is improving. She eats and drinks OK and is talking, but her legs still aren't able to support her for very long, particularly the left which may have been injured when she fell off the perch in the night? She is on Avipro Avian to restore her gut flora which must have been killed with such a low body temperature. Her poo is grainy and not well digested but we're sure she will be fine in a few more days. Then comes the difficult job or re-introduction.
The big question is what happened to her? We've had 4 cases of temporary paralysis in the last year or so and they have all happened after scratching in dead leaves. The presumption was Botulism caused by eating insects from an un-oxygenated environment. All the large fowl involved were not so badly affected and recovered in a day. But Poppy hasn't access to dead leaves and we think she may have eaten a poisonous Processionary Caterpillar. We've taken and destroyed ten nests out of the pine tree above her run, but there may still be some in the ground underneath? As a precaution all the dead leaves near her run, outside the enclosure, have been removed to allow the ground to be aerated.
So is there a lesson to be learned? Guess it's 'chicken keeping can be problematic' is about it!
