1 y.o. Hen suddenly passed

[chicken_harpist]

Hi all,

Checked on my chickens this morning and found one of my hens on the ground, dead. Her body was still warm when I took her out of the run. Since it was right at sunrise, it must have been from when she got up and out of the coop. She’s usually the first one up, and will walk outside the coop first before the other hens.

To get up into the coop, they jump on a cement block attached to the coop, about 1 foot in height.

I was with them last night and they were 100% fine.
The hen that passed hadn’t shown any signs of distress or disease.

It’s making me think she might have fallen off the block and on her neck? She was a perfectly healthy bird, and the brief time before I buried her, there was nothing about her that seemed off.

Additionally, she’s only a year old, but I know chickens can pass at any time, at any age, for any or no reason. She’s also my first bird I’ve lost, so any advice on grieving these little friends would be more than welcome.

Thank you, all!

 

[AidKD]

Can I see a picture of the cement block and how it's all set up? One of my chickens jumped off of a table onto the cement steps and broke her neck and died.

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

Hi all,

Checked on my chickens this morning and found one of my hens on the ground, dead. Her body was still warm when I took her out of the run. Since it was right at sunrise, it must have been from when she got up and out of the coop. She’s usually the first one up, and will walk outside the coop first before the other hens.

To get up into the coop, they jump on a cement block attached to the coop, about 1 foot in height.

I was with them last night and they were 100% fine.
The hen that passed hadn’t shown any signs of distress or disease.

It’s making me think she might have fallen off the block and on her neck? She was a perfectly healthy bird, and the brief time before I buried her, there was nothing about her that seemed off.

Additionally, she’s only a year old, but I know chickens can pass at any time, at any age, for any or no reason. She’s also my first bird I’ve lost, so any advice on grieving these little friends would be more than welcome.

Thank you, all!

from the way she is laying with her neck bending in, she died a “trauma” death wich means a sudden death, it could be sudden death syndrome, I lost one of my hens that way and she was laying exactly like your hen.

Also loosing a hen can be hard and it’s okay totally okay to grief and to be sad even though it was “just” a hen, it could mean a lot and take time for you and the flock to adjust depending on her place in the flock

 

[nuthatched]

What's their diet? Had she layed recently??
Chicken necks aren't like ours, they're not likely to snap from falling. All dead birds will have floppy necks.
Sorry for your loss.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. It is usually hard to guess why a chicken does young unless they have symptoms. If you can send her body to your state vet today or first thing in the am, they can try to find a cause of death. Florida has good lab at Kissimmee. They are in this list below:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

I usually do my own simple limited necropsies at home, basically opening the abdomen to examine the organs. There are certain conditions that may show up in pictures if you could take some. In a young hen, it could be a heart or major organ disease, but sometimes a reproductive disorder could be possible. Sometimes we miss any signs that warn of a problem. Here is a good video for organ identification:

 

[NuggetMama]

I am so sorry for your loss. She looks just like my little Fluffer Nutter. ;.;

It’s okay to grieve and spend extra time with your girls just to help feel better for you and them.