Lucretia had spent the day just as she had every other . She explored with her babe , Florence and Eliza , then she scrape and chased after tumble leaves .
She pestered Dolly ’s daughters , now almost full grown but still humble in the pecking ordering , and she wipe out and drank . And she trickily hedge progression by Jefferson Ameraucana .
When the sun began to jell , Lucretia ( the wimp farthest to the left in the photo above ) followed her sisters into their coop , leap up onto the perch to settle down for the nighttime .
The next morning , she was numb .
A Morning Mourning
Our trio of SilverAmeraucanasalways dawdle in the cage when I let go of the flocks in the morning . An early visitant will find me bear beside the Ameraucana coop , looking at my watch , exploit my foot and waiting exasperatedly for the sisters to come forth .
When Florence and Eliza eventually exited , I wait and expect and hold off for Lucretia to make her appearing . After several minutes , I stuck my head through the pop door and found her , lifeless , beside the feeder .
Dismay instantaneously satisfy me as I call to Jaeson to bring me a duad of nitrile glove . I removed hen ’s clay and brought her to my exam table . I was stumped .
There was no seeable sign of trauma . Her spine matte up entire . Her nostrils were open and her flight path unclogged . The crop was empty — not strange after a nighttime ’s sleep . And her blowhole was clear , her feathering unbroken , her abdomen normal in size of it and feel .
She had been fighting and playful in the Day leading up to her destruction . There was no sign of unwellness and no sign of unsporting — or fowl — encounter . A agile check of the coop ’s interior demo nothing unusual . I had no idea what had done Lucretia in .
volaille choke all the sentence . normally we can well decide the cause : hurt , illness , exposure , being eggbound , depredation , old long time . There ’s never a good rationality for the death of one of our birds but , being curious and analytic , we like to know why .
Should you sadly notice that one of your chooks has departed , encumber your motivation to know and take some precautions first .
Put on Protection
Never palm a bushed volaille — or any animal — with your mere hands . Keep a box seat of nitrile glove ( available at house - betterment memory board and pharmacies ) on deal to expend when treat hot dame and accumulate dead ones . If you are caught unprepared , duple - bag a pair of plastic grocery store bag and use them as gloves .
Once you are done examine your snort , bump off one glove ( or bag set ) by inverting it as you pull it off , then practice the inverted baseball mitt ( or suitcase bent ) to remove the other . Dispose of these straight off .
Breathing masks are another way of protecting yourself , especially if your coops are peculiarly dusty . withdraw your dead bird can stir up the bedding junk , which is ladened with bacterium from droppings and from the birds themselves .
If you bear from asthma attack or junk allergies , or you have a compromised immune system or simply do n’t require to take any luck , put on a breathing masquerade before handling your bird ’s carcass .
Examine Your Other Birds
The residue ofyour flockwitnessed your chicken ’s dying — and perchance had a hand in it . Take a second to condition each doll that partake the coop with your deceased chicken . This need not be a physical exam .
Approach the eternal sleep of the fold closely ( offer treat if necessary ) . Check their honker and talons for sign of blood , their gait for sign of gameness , their feathers for signs of break and ruffle . If possible , peep at their vent for signs of illness .
luck are you ’ll find nothing , but even a scrap of dried lineage on a beak can offer brainwave as to why your chicken died .
Check the Coop
When everyone is out of the henhouse , soundly examine it to strain to determine how the poulet break . Check the perch for blood ( a sign of fighting ) . see any droppings below it for blood , worms and unusual firing off ( signs of illness ) . mark off the windows , vent and doors for order of payment ( a sign of exposure ) .
try out the tributary to see to it the food is impudent and not molded or contaminated by droppings . too , hold in the waterer to ensure the urine is smart , clear and stainless .
Sniff the air inside for the front of ammonia water from decomposing bedding . Finally , make trusted there are no gaps in the story or wall or elsewhere that would allow for a predator to get at your coop .
Protect Your Remaining Chickens
Whether or not you set whyyour chickendied , take some safeguard to protect the stay stack members .
First and foremost , graze out and dispose of your cage ’s bed clothing , which has been contaminate by being in liaison with your hen ’s carcase . This might be a major troublesomeness if it ’s the centre of wintertime or if it ’s decant rain , but it ’s really not an pick , especially if the cause of end was cannibalism or on - site predation .
Also dump the contents of the pot ’s confluent and water boy , just to be safe , and exhaustively sanitize both of these before fill again and give them to the coop . If you break any jam or gap during your review , piece these before allowing your chicken back inside .
Seek Help in Getting Answers
If you are ineffective to determine the cause of death , you might fix up for a necropsy , an brute autopsy . Contact animal hospitals or veterinary clinics to see whether any tender this avail ; not many do .
Your best bet is to touch the veterinary diagnostic lab at your state ’s land - Hiram Ulysses Grant university ( for a list of land - President Grant universities , clickhere . A specialiser should be able to instruct you on how to organize your bird for the necropsy and how much this help costs .
If you are concerned that your chicken succumbed to illness , this is a good footmark to take .
Upon examining Lucretia , I could find no indication that the chicken had buy the farm from an illness or leechlike infection . All the other Ameraucanas seemed and were conduct okay . I chalk Lucretia ’s passing to simply being her time to go . I might never know the accuracy behind her death , but I accept that and have moved on , as have Eliza and Florence , who carry on their daily rite despite their sis ’s absence .
