alang
Chirping
My husband got home this evening to find one of our 3 month old hens down and weak in the middle of the run. He said she looked dead, lying lateral and not moving. He scooped her up and she was twitching and seemed like she couldn't move her legs. They were rigid maybe? He said not limp. Within 5 minutes she was dead. Afterward (when I got home 3 hours later) she had a small puddle of fluid and lots of sand/soil from her head (unsure hostile or mouth). There are no marks suggesting trauma. Everyone else is fine. She was in good flesh with no soft feces in her feathers. She looks perfectly clean so I doubt she was lying in her dusty run for long. She was in the center of the run near her ramp into the coop when he found her. Food and water available and definitely not the warmest day we have had. I hatched them all and have no other contact with other chickens and nobody visits who could have brought anything contagious so I did not vaccinate, including for Marek's. They had some corn on the cob and apple scraps this morning but they get those treats often. I checked on everyone else again in the dark and everyone looked sleepy but fine... I don't want a repeat experience any time soon. Could she have choked? Does this sound contagious? Help!