9 month old Silver Laced wyandott sudden death

[filetrenee]

I was shocked and sad to see my hen pass away today. She was one of 6 hens I got last June. No signs of any trouble. She was seen on my camera acting like a normal chicken at 230pm. I let them all out to free range at 4pm. She came out as usual. At 5pm I went out to check them and found her laying in the yard with no signs of life. There was no injuries, blood etc. She layed an egg earlier in the day. The weather was in the 80's. She is a large breed. I can only figure it was heart related?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Could be heart related. I've had my share of birds die of heart attack. There are many other possibilities though. The only way to know for sure is a necropsy. Send the carcass unfrozen to your state poultry lab or vet school. What state are you in?

 

[filetrenee]

Thank you for the reply. I am in central Florida.

 

[Exopoulterer]

Thank you for the reply. I am in central Florida.

Do you still have her?

The address and phone # for your state lab is in this photo of part of my necropsy report. It costed $50. and they are very responsive when called with questions or issues. (I did have an issue when they sent the bill and tried to charge an additional $50. for cremation. They shouldn't charge that for poultry. They amended the bill within minutes and I paid my $50.online.)

I found the website rather difficult and called instead. I decided to bring my girl in as it was about a 2.5 hour drive from me and I was afraid of something going wrong with shipping.

Even if it is too late to check this girl, it is good to know what could be wrong if you lose a chicken and don't know why.

 

[filetrenee]

Do you still have her?

The address and phone # for your state lab is in this photo of part of my necropsy report. It costed $50. and they are very responsive when called with questions or issues. (I did have an issue when they sent the bill and tried to charge an additional $50. for cremation. They shouldn't charge that for poultry. They amended the bill within minutes and I paid my $50.online.)

I found the website rather difficult and called instead. I decided to bring my girl in as it was about a 2.5 hour drive from me and I was afraid of something going wrong with shipping.

Even if it is too late to check this girl, it is good to know what could be wrong if you lose a chicken and don't know why.
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Thank you for the info. I did bury her the day it occurred. Great to keep this info you sent in case

 

[Exopoulterer]

Thank you for the info. I did bury her the day it occurred. Great to keep this info you sent in case

I am sorry that you lost her in the first place. The sudden death does seem to have a better chance that it was a one off thing like heart failure or FLHS. Just know that she probably didn't know what hit her and didn't suffer for long.

It is definitely good to know the contacts and costs ahead of time. I knew that I wanted to know what was wrong with Scaley but was so scared to send her in.

I was afraid it would end up costing an arm and a leg with each test costing additional fees.

I was afraid the state would come for my chickens as one of the diseases that were detected is a reportable illness. They offered to have someone from USDA Defend the Flock to come and help but did not push. I was sent some biosecurity outreach material via email.

It sucks that I couldn't get her back for burial but the info and knowledge I recieved was definitely worth it in my case.

I did my own necropsies after Scaley that positively confirmed that the others suffered from the same issues, but will definitely bring a bird to BADDL if something happens when I start over with a new flock.

There are other ways to get necropsies done in FL but they are gate kept by requiring to have a vet send it in and much more costly.