Sudden death on nest

[chickenbaguette]

I found my year old Pekin bantam dead in her nest today, on her side but with no sign of anything wrong, except her crop was empty. One side of her head was a bit red with less feathers than the other - is it possible that one hard blow to the head in the right place could have killed her?
How long would it have taken to starve? If she hadn't eaten for two days would that have done it?
She was fine yesterday, only her comb has been slightly darker purply-red recently.
Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[terryg]

I call this "SCD" or "sudden chicken death." If you have chickens long enough, you'll find a dead bird that had showed no signs of illness. Chickens are masters at hiding illness - a sick chicken upsets the pecking order and is easy prey. So, some chickens are actually seriously diseased and you don't know it. In other cases, they die suddenly and they were, seemingly, perfectly fine. Sometimes chickens give out. Heart attacks and strokes. I do home necropsies on my birds and I've seen both cases.
To answer your starving question- chickens can go days without food, but can die within 48 hours if they don't have water. (Which is why it's so important to keep water from freezing in the winter.)
A change in comb color is an indication that there was something amiss. Chickens quickly get mineral imbalances. If you do an archive search on my blog, I have some posts about that - epsom salts often set it right. http://www.hencam.com/henblog/archives/
So, it's unlikely that there was anything you could have done and it's not contagious.

 

[suegrew15]

I also lost a hen last night. I found her dead this morning, with no sighs of desease or traumer. Yesterday she was standing in the nesting box the twice I checked for eggs, but as two are broody did not think anything of it.
I am worried it might be something I have done or not, as I am a novice hen keeper. We inherited them with the house a year ago, but this is the first problem we have had.

 

[terryg]

Do you have any idea how old your hens are? Are you in a part of the country that is exceptionally hot?

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's unfortunate, but if you deal with living animals, you eventually have to deal with dead animals. As Terry said, it happens. Sometimes you can figure out why and sometimes you can't. It may be a birth defect where an internal organ just was not right and finally gave out. It could be an injury or a disease. Sometimes it is a combination of things, like a weak heart then the stress of laying in the heat, or maybe weakened from parasites plus some other stress. It's just hard to say. If she was in the nest like that, maybe she was eggbound?

I had one last year that died while laying in the triple digit heat. She had not been acting quite right anyway, so I think she was weakened by something then the stress of laying in the heat was just too much.

A lot of times it was nothing you did and nothing you could do. I suggest checking them for mites and lice just to make sure those are not weakening them. I trust you know that for roost mites you have to check after dark. I would not immediately run out and worm them unless the others are not thriving or you see some other symptoms.

Are your nest boxes unusually hot? Are they maybe on the sunny side and with poor ventilation so they trap heat? Even in our recent triple digit heat I've seen three hens pile into one nest box to lay together. That has to get warm. I know this is a stretch but I'm trying to think of any possible explanation.

Just observe them and if the others are acting normal, it was just something that happened. From what you described, I think she had an underlying problem and the stress of laying was just too much for her.

 

[suegrew15]

I asked the lady we bought the house from and they are nearly 2.

 

[terryg]

The hens that I've seen die suddenly without symptoms have all been under 3 years of age. It has never been due to a communicable disease and my best guess is that there's a genetic weakness that does them in. Later on, I there are always symptoms seen before death. Respiratory diseases are obvious. Other common causes of death are such things as cancer (ovarian cancer is very prevalent in hens) and you will see the hen in decline before she succumbs.

 

[suegrew15]

Thank you for your reply, I am watching the others very closely ,they seem fine.It has been a miserable summer here with heavy rain high winds thunder and lightening. i don't know if that affected her.