Chicken just drops dead??

[rkapfen]

Hi everyone. I’m really sad to say but one of my laddies just dropped dead seemingly out of now where. She was almost 2 years old and a Brahma. She was acting completely normal today. Eating,drinking, pooping like normal. She’s been laying normal eggs but we didn’t get one from her today. Just out of nowhere I noticed her in the middle of the yard and it almost looking like she was convulsing or having hiccoughs but her mouth was closed. She dropped to the grown and tried to stand back up but her body was shaking and she just dropped down again and died. It happened so fast I just don’t understand. No obvious signs of trauma. The vet we take them to is closed and the emergency vets basically said they couldn’t help us for an autopsy. I’m just nervous this could happen to my other chickens. Has anyone experienced anything like this before or have any guesses? I’m worried about my other girls and my heart is broken

 

[azygous]

Call your university extension office or your state department of agriculture office and ask for the contact info for a state agricultural lab. That is where you will be able to get a necropsy.

Sudden death might be from the hen ingesting a toxic substance such as ant poison or wasp poison or other petroleum distillate such as paint thinner or hydraulic fluid.

The hen could have had a genetic issue where her heart suddenly gave out.

I've lost chickens to both.

 

[Elfie4306]

I'm so sorry to hear about your lady passing. From what I've seen in my internet search, it sounds like gapeworm, I'll copy and paste the definition used on the website I found. Let me know if it sounds right.

A gapeworm (Syngamus trachea) is a parasitic nematode worm infecting the tracheas of certain birds. The resulting disease, known as gape or the gapes, occurs when the worms clog and obstruct the airway. The worms are also known as red worms or forked worms due to their red color and the permanent procreative conjunction of males and females. Gapeworm is common in young, domesticated chickens and turkeys.

When the female gapeworm lays her eggs in the trachea of an infected bird, the eggs are coughed up, swallowed, then defecated. When birds consume the eggs found in the feces or an intermediate host such as earthworms, snails (Planorbarius corneus, Bithynia tentaculata, &#8230

, or slugs, they become infected with the parasite.

Although the first thing that came to my mind was epilepsy. But this seemed to fit the description pretty well.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Gapeworm is actually pretty darn rare.

I agree with Azygous.
If you are going to try to send her for a necropsy the body needs refrigerated not frozen.

I had a bantam years ago that was happily bouncing around the yard with everyone else. She suddenly dropped in mid run and died. It was her heart.

I know how shocking such a sudden loss like yours can be.

 

[rkapfen]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I want to believe it’s her heart and my other girls aren’t at risk and luckily she went peacefully and quick. Im really hoping it’s not gape worm. I deworm them regularly and she hasn’t been making any odd gaping motions with her beak. I guess I’ll just deworm the rest of the flock and keep a close eye for now. They wanted around $800 for a necropsy so we just can’t do that right now unfortunately. Maybe we will never really know what happened

 

[Mylied]

I had one die of a heart attack (or so we assumed). I picked it up for a picture. It convulsed and died. It was a younger bird too. So strange.

 

[diamondsilkies]

I'm not sure what the cause could be but as for the convulsing:

Over the years, I've watched several chickens die, and unless they are very sick and just slowly pass, they tend to convulse a little before dying. I've never understood why it happens, but it sounds just like what you described. I've seen it in both sick birds and in just old birds that died from natural causes. This might be a little gruesome, but if you've ever found a dead chicken (unless killed by a predator or something), their body is usually in kind of a weird position, which I suppose is caused by the convulsing.

Sorry for your loss, I hope you find out what happened to her and that none of your other birds have similar issues.

 

[rkapfen]

So strange! She seemed to healthy but I guess you never really know. Here’s her and our little rooster who was so in love with her

 

[Mylied]

So strange! She seemed to healthy but I guess you never really know. Here’s her and our little rooster who was so in love with her
View attachment 2090431

She sure was beautiful. I'm sorry you lost her.

 

[Waves]

i'm so sorry, she was so cute...!!!
i understand your feeling, i lost one of my older hens from heart attack, and my first rooster died suddenly one night. their names were Arancina and Batù. i'll forever remeber that dismay and fright. hugging you