I'd love some help figuring out what killed my beautiful Buff...
Yesterday afternoon we found one of our 6 mo. old Buff Orpingtons completely slumped over in the run. She was almost totally unresponsive, had shallow breathing, eyes almost closed, and was unable to move her feet or hold her head up. Her comb was purplish and it looked like some blood vessels around the rim of her lower eyelids had ruptured, though the eyes themselves looked normal.
Our first thought was heat stress, even though the girls have experienced hotter temps, so we put her in a cool bath. She seemed to perk up just enough to keep her eyes open from time to time, but she seemed to have seizure-like spasms in her neck and kept snaking her head around in a strange chicken version of a Stevie Wonder move. We took her out of the bath and put her on a towel, where she expired shortly thereafter.
I did notice a Buff with an itchy red lower eyelid spot a couple of days before, though, and I thought it was just a minor abrasion that was healing. No breathing problems, discharge, funny droppings--zip. She had been eating and laying just fine.
All 16 chickens seemed the picture of health until this, even that morning. Keeping the eyelid thing in mind, I'm not ruling out a disease, but the suddenness makes me wonder if it might have been a scorpion sting, especially after reading some previous posts. All the other girls look great this morning. I'd sure appreciate any thoughts.
(I have, BTW, done what I could to disinfect the coop, feeders, waterers, and nest boxes. All food and bedding has been replaced. The run is a 12 x 18 ft. enclosure, and I'm not sure if there is anything more I can do about sanitizing the ground, though I did rake it well.)
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Thanks to all of you who have offered your advice. It's been almost a week now, and all the other hens (Buffs, RIR, BPR, and Ameraucanas) look great, heat and all. We have shade, water, pools to stand in, and misters, so my best guess is a scorpion sting.
I'm buying a black light this week and a-hunting I will go.
I got to thinking about Becky's mishap with the screw, and we took all the staples out from our shade cloth/bird netting, and replaced them with long metal straping secured with screws. I had visions of a wind storm popping staples out and the chickens snapping them up!
I have been looking closely at all their eyes, and haven't noticed anything. I've seen pictures of chickens with various eye issues, but nothing that looked like that little spot on that Buff. I still don't know if the Buff that died was the same one with the eye spot, but it was so small that it would surprise me if it was a factor. Newbie that I am, I guess anything's possible.
Funny, I chose Buffs because they were friendly, but also because I thought their lighter color would do better in the heat, only to find that they're heat-sensitive. Go figure.
Thanks again for all your help!
Laura
"I got to thinking about Backy's mishap with the screw"
That's funny. I was just visiting my 3 yr old Nephew in Tucson and he calls me Backy.
My guess is that it's a combo scorpion + heat. Buff Orpingtons seem to be a little more sensitive to the heat, that combined with the scorpion neurotoxin could be enough to put her over the edge. Scorpion stings aren't usually fatal.
Do you think the one you saw a few days ago with the red spot on the eye was the bird that died, or is that a separate case? If you are thinking it's the same bird, that would rule out death by scorpion sting; she would have had symptoms long before when she died.
Absolutely...on the scorpion + heat thing. Some chickens are more sensitive to the stings than others (we had a RIR cockerel that never blinked an eye when he'd get stung, no ill effects whatsoever)...but it's hard on all of them if they get stung this time of year, since the heat can make them expire so much more quickly. During the cooler months...my scorpion stung chickens can stay outside just fine, not so this time of year.
We have bark scorpions everywhere. My husband goes out every night to scan the cement block wall with a black light and a blow torch or hammer. When we first moved here, we'd find live scorpions in the house every day (and at that time he was still killing >100 a night outside). Now, between the chickens putting a dent into the scorpions' prey populations and his hunting, he's only killing 20-30 a night on the block walls...and we find one in the house maybe once a month. Yay! Making progress...and no pest control chemicals needed.
and if you check at night with a blue light, it's even easier to spot them.
My husband saw one of our pullets get stung by a scorpion. She attacked the scorpion and then ran away flapping and shaking her head. We watched her closely and she didn't seem to have any ill effects. She didn't go back for the scorpion, though which she had killed in her attempt to eat it.
She was lucky, I guess.
No matter what you do to keep your chickens safe, some always manage to get into trouble. We had one die from eating a screw. :-(
Seizure-type behavior told me everything I needed to know...
I'd bet money that she took her chances with a scorpion.
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