Dot’s gone

I am heart broken to have lost Dot today. She went very quickly.

Yesterday Dot seemed absolutely fine. This morning when we went out to the girls we knew something was very wrong with Dot. She was sitting in front of the chickens’ patio and looking very poorly. Already her comb had gone pale.

Dot usually lays every other day and hadn’t laid for three days but I didn’t worry because every now and again she misses two or three days. Unlike the rest of the girls Dot has never gone broody so I always felt she needed a short break now and then.

I picked Dot up and checked her vent. She had some yellow egg yolk around her vent. I feared the worst, that an egg must have broken inside her. I didn’t know if this had happened this morning or a day or two ago as with Salmon. I was unsure what to do and left her a little while to see if she could pass it.

I checked back again and there was egg dripping from her vent. I thought this may have meant that it had just happened this morning so I decided to bath her and see if once her vent was relaxed she could expel the egg.

I have never had any luck with bathing a girl to help with an egg stuck or broken but as all the chicken forums suggest this I felt I must try. It seemed the only thing I could do.

I bathed her up to just above her vent in warm water while supporting her and she appeared to doze. I couldn’t see any shell which was the worrying thing. I dried her on my lap with the towel as best I could then I dripped a few drops of sugar water in her beak in the hope of giving her some strength.

I then made her comfortable on the towel.

I checked back on her ten minutes later and she was gone. I knew as soon as I walked into the bathroom because she was facing the other way. I have seen before the last flap before they go. I picked her up and checked her and she was gone.

I just don’t understand why this should happen to Dot as she has always been our best egg layer and never had a problem. Her last eggs we had for breakfast yesterday and they had good shells.

We buried Dot in the chickens’ strip. We dug out some plants, wrapped Dot in tray papers and buried her then put the plants back over her and marked her spot.

Dot’s sibling, Spot, died of suspected heart failure without ever laying an egg. I am wondering if Dot had a weak heart too. Dot was four years old. We have had girls go suddenly over night and then Speckles suddenly on her way into the chicken shed one night. But both Spot and Dot are the only two girls that had a problem and then went so quickly so it makes me wonder.

Dot had laid 75 eggs in four and a half months – March to July. She laid more eggs every month than any of the other girls in our flock.

Dot was beautiful and had a lovely character and was a favourite of mine from the day she came to us. She will be very much missed.

I will do a tribute to Dot over the next day or two when I have gone through my photos. At the moment I feel a bit shell shocked at how quickly she has gone.