unexpected chicken death

[Erika2709]

Hi everybody, this is my first post as a BYC member. Unfortunately, this morning, I found one of my beloved chickens dead in the nest box. It had just been running around, happy, yesterday, so to find her dead this morning was such an awful shock. It was so heartbreaking, but now I'm worried about the other chickens.

Is it common for chickens to die when they lay an egg? If that did happen, did she have like an aneurism or something? I've had these chickens for four years now, and they have been nothing but healthy, and fairly normal. I give them fresh water and food everyday, and clean their coop often. I just don't know what happened. There was nothing that appeared wrong with the chicekn, it just looked like she had been sleeping.

BYC had been nothing but helpful in the past, so any thoughts about this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[justtoni44]

Erika,
I am so sorry that this happened..........

Truely, I do not have a clue..........It could be so many different things.
I think you will get ideas from others that have had this experience...............
Heat is about the only thing that comes to mind for me.
Where are you located?

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I'm sorry to hear about your chicken dying. Since she wasn't showing any symptoms we will hope it wasn't anything contagious, but keep an eye on your other chickens for anything unusual just in case. I don't know that something like egg binding could cause sudden death without any symptoms. But I suppose you could feel for any signs of a stuck egg.

I have had one of my 2 year old roosters act normal one second and then keel over right in front of me the next second. My first though was aneurysm when that happened, too.

 

[teach1rusl]

Any time a chicken shows no signs of being ill before death, I always assume it's an internal issue that one could have done nothing to prevent. Chickens can have heart and brain issues (like a heart attack or stroke), so I would think it was something like that. I've lost one that way (happily dust bathing and just died) and one to internal laying. But that girl was sick on and off for months before finally succombing.
I am sorry about your little chicken, but I would not worry about your others...

 

[dottie1111]

Sorry to hear of your loss. My Roxy also died tday only 2 yrs old >found her in the nest box dead today there were no apparent signs of illness but for the past week she has not wanted to go out into the pen with the other chickens I would have to put her out myself.and then she would hide in the corner.

I will miss her she used to jump and sit in my lap

 

[janinepeters]

There are so many different possible causes. Some of the contagious diseases can present like this, so keep an eye on the others, and note diarrhea, labored breathing, loss of energy, difficulties walking, etc. Hopefully, this is just an isolated incident, though.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

That's sad about Roxy. So sorry.

 

[hnortman]

So sorry for you. I found one of my chickens dead this morning, too. Zelda was perfectly fine yesterday. She was following me around the yard like a puppy dog. She was about 5 1/2 months old and has been laying eggs for about 2 weeks now (laying an egg almost every day). She was on the ground in the pen when we went to let the chickens out. No signs of external injury. I wish I knew what happened.

 

[annie3001]

first, welcome to byc.

so sorry for your little chicken loss. i too lost a chicken unexpected a few weeks ago. heartbreaking. no reason. i checked her over and found no trama. sometimes these things just happen.