It was first noted that something wasn’t quite right about a week ago when we would go up the garden to change their water and refill their feeder. Ginger would be standing still, out in the cold and wet whilst Ethel would be tucked up in the house. As we tried to usher her into the house , we noted that she couldn’t walk very well, in fact not at all and using her wings as support. Apparently standing still is a common symptom of a very sick chicken.

So we took her indoors where we would make her as comfortable as possible and warm her up. There she lay in a cardboard box of hay by the radiator near the back door and she seemed to appreciate that. I decided to try and find out by reading the books we have and via the various forums on the net but nothing was conclusive. As she clearly had a swelling in her stomach, it was looking likely that old Ginger was egg bound meaning she had an egg stuck inside her.

I gave her a few baths in an attempt to further warm her up and to help her relax but no egg appeared but she did lay a little rubber egg (which is common so I’ve been told) on day two of her being indoors and she did appear to come round a little but she still wanted to just fall asleep all the time. She was still eating and drinking though which was an encouraging sign.

Day four and there was no change. I gave her her bath in the hope of relaxing her and although she sank into the hot water and fell asleep as I was told that they always do, things didn’t change. When dried and returned to her little box she fell straight asleep with her head under her wing and we discovered that our poor little Ginger had passed away this morning.

Ginger was the first of our pets to become ill and pass away and its really sad.