It has taken me a couple of days to pluck up the courage to write this as I'm still disturbed and gutted by the whole incident...here goes:
On Sunday morning I heard lot of commotion coming from our chickens coop. I was on the phone at the time, but my husband went to check on the girls.
He called me out immediately and there I found Lily - our top hen struggling for breath...she looked terrible. She had blood at her back end which was split and was laying on her side.
I quickly scooped her into the pet carrier and as I did I noticed her intestines were hanging out of her back end! I took her inside and I could see that her back end was split and badly injured. I knew we were losing her and I felt helpless as I spoke to her and watched her pass away in such an awful way.
I can only assume she must have had a prolapsed vent and I hadn't noticed. She had been absolutely fine, eating and drinking etc. I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary.
My leghorn was covered in blood and I can only assume that she did this to Lily. I feel so terribly guilty, if only I had noticed something wasn't right I could maybe have saved her.
I will miss her so much and I feel I've let her down
I was wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this and what the cause of it might be.
Happiness is a warm chicken in your lap, a comb tickling your chin and an egg in your tummy!
Oh my word how terrible for you all. I'm really sorry but can't supply any help or advice but I can imagine how devestated and helpless you must be feeling
Kath xx
Mum to my beautiful girls Lucy, Holly, Rosie, Hettie, Polly, Ruby, Lily, Penny, Gracie, Maisie, Molly, Evie and my gorgeous boy Toby
RIP my beautiful Ranger, Roxy, Bluebelle, Poppy, Speckle, Daisy and Honey xxxx
I am glad you have plucked up the courage to post as it has been on your mind and you are amongst friends.
I obviously don't know, but I guess Lily prolapsed, which does happen and then sadly others went for the prolapse, they can be horrid at times, I am guessing it could have happened at any time and we cannot be around them all the time.
Take time to get over this and although horrid for you she went quickly after this.
Don't beat yourself up. The prolapse may have only just happened. Even if you'd seen it immediately and eased it back the same may have happened again when laying another egg. Somewhere there is a thread on prolapse. If it happens to another hen you can use pile cream, or even sugar to shrink it before you push it back, but you need to keep everything as clean as poss. You were unlucky. I only know about it from here - not seen it in 10 yrs keeping hens.
agree with Mo and Perchy - DONT BEAT YOURSELF UP! You cant be out there with your hens 24/7, so this would have happened anyway. Hens are animals/raptors after all, you cant blame the other hen for attacking the prolapse - hens are really attracked to blood/red. What a horrible experience for you though, but you know you were NOT to blame. Lucky for you and your little hen that it was all over fairly quickly.
Im always saying this but hens are really very fragile creatures when they're ill/sick/in trouble. You do what you can, as long as you take care of them, provide to their needs and give them a good environment to be hens in, thats all you can do really.
please dont feel bad or blame yourself we have all had something awful happen to our girls and by no means is this your fault or anything you have done.
It is great that you have joined us on down the lane ,consider yourself amongst freinds ,and with fellow hen keepers ,it is awful that your little hen passed away and that it was under these circumstances but as others say it really could have happened to any of us at anytime your little girl is at rest and in no pain and yes you will cry and feel very sad but this will pass your other little hens need you and they will help to provide you with lots more smiles and lift your spirits ,when you feel a little better take a look around this forum and you will see that we have all felt terrible and felt that we let our little hens and cockerels down but no one here is ever guilty of that you are by no doubt lots of tears but please dry them and take a hug
sleep tight little hen and fly high amongst our little hens that are waiting for you over rainbow bridge .
[center]HELPING THE LITTLE BROWN GIRLS OF THIS WORLD FIND FOREVER HOMES Humble chicken maid to a happy little flock Frankii Whippers leading the way with Dorey,Prila(aka Mrs Brown),Ann-a-Lou Greta, Delphine my adorable silkie,my twin girls Lana and Boudica (aka The Jedward Twins ) ,Augustine Eizabeth(aka Pippy), Rheima, Marnie and Fleur aka little miss chatterbox[/center]
Still loving and missing Skinnie Minnie and Queenie xx
Marlene you taught me how to live and laugh again xx
Isabella my darling top hen ,you stole my heart xx
Porscha my sweet little girl ,you left so suddenly xx
I can only repeat what has already been said. Some things happen beyond our control, but it still makes it hard when it happens. It must have been dreadful for you to see your girl in such a bad way but it wasn't your fault She is at peace now, bless her
This was not your fault and you have nothing to feel guilty about. Some prolapses can be quite small and fairly easy to deal with, others can be impossible to sort. It sounds like your Lily was unlucky enough to suffer a major prolapse and with all probability, even if you were standing next to her at the time, there was probably not a lot you could have done.
I'm so sorry you had to see that, it must have been an awful shock for you and no wonder you are struggling to deal with it but please don't beat yourself up.
Lucy x
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut - Ernest Hemingway
You are definately not alone I've luckily never had to experience or deal with a prolaps, but I think most of us have at one time or another felt terrible and guilty about something thats happened to our ladies.. You simply can't be there all the time so please dont feel as though this was your fault. We can all only do our best x
"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid"
We've missed a mild prolapse in one of ours on more than one occasion I think. Some hens get them, some don't. One of ours had them often (an ex-batt who laid massive eggs) and they were easy to fix, while others have never had a problem then developed one and been put down within hours.
Although my prolapsed hen didn't get savaged my poor little Dot was near death after being attacked by the oldies.
It happened while I was at work ad felt hugely responsible despite telling myself it could have happened any time. Luckily a trip to my vet a few staples in her head and some TLC and Dot recovered. Much as we love our hens they can turn brutal at the sign of blood.
Please try not to blame yourself.
Oh and I took my prolapsed hen to the vet to be PTS as she did not like being handled so didn't want to put her through weeks of treatment with no guaranteed recovery. It was a bad. bloody prolapse not the simple popped out kind
My girls have never had a prolapase, but I've read enough about keeping chickens (mostly on here) to know that without eyes in the back of your head, 24 CCTV and individual big runs for all the girls it is not possible to avoid the occasional mishap.
You will feel awful, of course, but honestly there's no-one on this Lane who hasn't suffered from guilt for one reason or another. I used to think that "working mum guilt" was bad enough - but keeping hens has an extra dimension to it. Kids can let you know in many ways that there is something not right. Chooks - not so much.
As has been said, you can say anything here. We understand and don't judge. That's been my experience anyway.
Bea; 19 hens (most of whom I intended to get); 6 bantams (which I never intended to have); old Benji dog and young Toby dog (who I definitely wanted). Three years into country living and loving it.
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