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My head hen and favorite Barred Rock seemed fine this morning when I let them all out, but moments later had a couple of brief seizures and died! She has always been thin, but she was also the most active of all the girls, and recently her feathers have been rather dull which I attributed to an up-coming molt. Otherwise she has always been very healthy. Any ideas about what could have happened to her?
I wonder if it could have been some sort of parasite? Parasite are sometimes linked with seizures...and chickens do have lot of parasite. It would also explain her being thin and out of condition although otherwise healthy.
I looked in the sticky at various diseases and parasites but didn't see anything that matched her symptoms. Do you have an idea of which parasite might be responsible?
I thought she was thin because she was always on the run, but she also may have been laying slightly funky eggs. Someone lays rough shelled eggs with an extra air pocket on the side, and I haven't picked up any of these eggs since she died. I always hope to find out what happened to the hens that die so that I might prevent others meeting the same fate.
Porkpal--I don't know of specific avian parasites, and sometimes just the stress of a heavy infestation can cause seizures--but there are also so many potential parasites, some of which are very geographically restricted and many of which are only a problem for an animal with a genetic predisposition or suppressed immune system.
Pork tapeworms can cause brain lesions and seizures in humans, roundworms and tape worms can cause seizures in puppies and kittens, and water borne amoeba can infect the nervous system and cause seizures in a lot of animals.
And there is also the chance that she had an idiopathic seizure that was just severe enough to cause her death--but the fact that she seemed thin and a little out of condition made me think of a possible parasite connection.
I am so sorry you lost her though--I just lost my only Buckeye to a skunk. My first predator loss. It is strange how attached you can get to a chicken...some just have a lot of personality...and some are really charismatic.
