Any idea what could have killed my chicken?

[susan1981]

I've had my chickens for a couple of years now and one of them has just died She was a white one (sorry I don't know the breeds - is it a white sussex?) and I have no idea what happened to her. Recently, she hasn't been herself. She's seemed like she's almost been depressed, not getting excited about her regular feeds although if we put anything else in there, like left over food, she'd get excited about that (we very rarely put leftovers in there though) but she just seemed to stand around whereas my other chicken is still her clucky, chirpy self.

8 months ago, she was attacked by a fox. We used to let them have a run around our garden if we were home on the weekends but one Saturday, we'd left them running around while we were inside the house and heard lots of loud clucking to find that our white chicken was being attacked by a fox. Luckily we got out there in time. She had a puncture wound but we put her in a separate cage in the garage and she made what seemed like a full recovery but we then didn't let them roam free in the garden anymore, although they still had their pen. They probably have an hour a week running free in the garden. My husband doesn't think she's been the same since the fox attack so could it be this? Or could she have been depressed? Or any other ideas? She was my favourite chicken and always seemed quite a strong one. She survived a red mite infestation which a previous chicken didn't, she survived the fox attack and we also had another chicken that randomly died (and we have no idea what happened to her apart from she had these weird holes in her side).

Also, just to add, she has been laying eggs up until yesterday (or possibly today even).

 

[realsis]

I'm soooo sorry for your loss! hugs for you ((())). gosh its really hard to even guess what took her with out any really obvious symptoms. do you think she got attacked by something? causing the holes? maybe something must have been going on inside of her giving her that sort of depression you saw but I could not begin to guess what it was. problem is chickens tend to hide their illnesses to keep them from being picked on in the flock. sometimes the clues are so subtle that we don't even notice until they actually pass. like what happened here. without any real clues it would be almost impossible to guess..sounds like a attack.you could get a post death exam done by a vet or state and that will tell you for sure what happened. not sure if you want to go that route but I know its done quite often. then they will mail or email the results. unfortunately this is really the ONLY way to know for sure. we can guess a thousand guesses but only a exam will tell you for certain.to me with the holes in her side I would say something got a hold of her and caused internal damage. again I'm so very sorry for the loss of your bird. I really wish I could be of more help to you! hopefully this post helped some. I wish I could guess the exact cause but with out a exam its really difficult.maybe someone else knows what kind of animal attack would leave those holes. I do wish you the best and again I'm sorry for your loss!

 

[susan1981]

Thank you. I guess it'll just be one of those things that we'll never know. My husband has buried her in the garden so here's hoping those bleeding foxes don't try and dig her up. Hopefully it's deep enough x