First Sick Chicken - Heavy Breathing, Drooling, Lethargic and then suddenly died

[MrsSerfesME]

We purchased 12 baby chicks back in May and one of them passed away when she was only a few weeks old, she had physical deformities. The others have been very healthy and 2 have them have started laying eggs within the past month. This evening my husband went out to closed the chicken coop door and found one of our leghorns, the one who was laying eggs, laying in the corner of the run near the coop door breathing heavy. He brought me out to see her and he picked her up, she was also drooling and breathing with her mouth open. We took her away from the rest of the flock, I checked all of them and they all looked fine. We put her in our pet carrier with a towel so she had something comfortable to lay on and within the hour she died. This morning she was perfectly fine. Her comb was also a bit floppy. I also found one of her eggs on the floor of the coop under the perches where she has never laid an egg before, she always lays them in the same nest box. She has been a daily egg layer since she start laying about a month or so ago, never missed a day. Also, we gave them a pumpkin today for the firs time. Not sure if that could have anything to do with it, but they loved that pumpkin.

So my question is does anyone have any idea what could have happened to her and if it is something we can try to prevent from happening to the rest of our flock???

 

[Toddrick]

I would be concerned about worms. But there are a lot of problems that could have just affected the one bird, like swallowing something she shouldn't have or a tumor. Anyways, what I would do issue her take some fresh poo to a vet and ask them to do a fecal float (usually only $15US) or try and do one myself with a jar, water, and a bright flashlight.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. Many things can affect chickens especially around the time they start to lay eggs as they become fully grown. Internal problems such as heart, liver, or kidney failure, or some other disease may be the problem. Many times they don't have symptoms, or the symptoms are so subtle that we don't notice them until they are dying. Her symptoms at the end could have just been the "throes of death" and not have any significance. Most state vets can do necropsies to look for a cause of death if it is suspicious or if you have multiple deaths. Most of us with flocks of chickens experience an occasional death once in awhile. Here is a link for finding your state vet for the future:
http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf

 

[MrsSerfesME]

Thank you for the info Toddrick. I can't take a fresh poo to the vet unfortunately because she has passed and I have no way of knowing which poos were hers in the coop/run. So far our other 10 chickens are looking perfectly fine. The eggs she was laying have been clean also, no poo on them.

 

[maziechicken02]

She probably had a heart problem usually you don't know until there very sick sorry for your loss

 

[maziechicken02]

We've had the roo for a week now but he hasn't mated with her yet I've been watching closely

 

[maziechicken02]

Lol thought I was replying to my post XD