Cause of Death??

[aaoddancer14]

This morning I went outside to feed my silkies and one of them was laying in her nesting box with her head tucked underneath of her, dead. She seemed perfectly fine yesterday and I'm just wondering if anyone knows what the cause of this could have been? Thanks.

 

[AustralorpsAU]

I'm thinking it could have been egg bound! Not sure though

 

[aaoddancer14]

Hm, never thought about that. That could be a possibility I guess, even though she wasn't showing any symptoms that I knew of.

 

[CuckooOrpington]

Sorry for your loss... As AustralorpsAU stated, she could have been egg bound. It is quite common for poultry to die without explanation as chickens can be affected by disease/stress and not show any symptoms. Was you hen at the bottom of the pecking order? Silkies have rather fragile skulls and a single blow to the head (whether it's continuous pecking or a fight) can result in brain injury. They hide in egg boxes, dark areas or corners if they are being beaten up by flock mates. Though this possibility is unlikely it may have been the case.

Otherwise a more likely cause could have been an acute form of disease such as acute fowl cholera. It is common for Cholera to infect a bird and when acute, not show any symptoms before death. This can happen with a variety of viral/bacterial/protozoa diseases. Otherwise she may have been poisoned due to ingesting rodent baits or possibly avocado leaves or a large amount of grapes etc. Without necrospy it is hard to determine why your hen died. Heat stress can also cause death to a healthy bird if it was hot when she died.

 

[aaoddancer14]

Thanks for all the info. This hen was actually the most dominant, and none of my other chickens would even consider messing with her. I did look up acute fowl cholera and it mentioned something about the possibility of it being obtained by being in contact with wild birds or predators...we had two hawks get into the chicken pen 2 and a half weeks ago but I chased them out before they got to any of my chickens except for my smallest one, which they took. Do you think that could have had something to do with it?

 

[buffgirls]

Good Morning! I'm sorry for the loss of your silkie. The exact scenario happened to me yesterday. I went to collect eggs in the afternoon, and found one of my girls, a Buff Orpington, dead in the coop as if she were asleep. I did not observe any signs or symptoms that anything could be wrong. Puzzled.

 

[aaoddancer14]

That's the worst, buffgirls
Sorry for your loss as well.