Can my chicken have died of a broken heart??

[DarleneE]

I am still so heartbroken I can't seem to get past this and I am suffering from a tremendous amount of horrible guilt. You see our beautiful Black Australorp, Ebby was the epitome of health. She was big, fat, beautiful feathers, eating and drinking extremely well.. I mean she was perfect.. not a thing wrong with her. Well my husband and I were moving to North Carolina from Florida. I had to re-home her though it was killing me to do this.. you have no idea how much I struggled with this but we just couldn't take her as we would be in an apartment for a year! So I searched and searched and finally remembered a good friend of the family had a small very cute farm with only a small amount of animals and she's the type of person like me that truly truly loves her animals. So she agreed to take Ebby. We even bought Ebby her own small coop so she could ease into the small flock and not just be thrown in with the 9 chickens she already had. Well we took her 2 days before we were leaving and set up her coop and everything and we watched her walking around and seeming to be doing well. After we left, the lady would send me pictures and videos of Ebby daily and she seemed to be happy and thriving and I was so happy and relieved that she was doing well. However after only almost 2 weeks there she stopped wanting to eat and didn't even want her favorite treats which Ruth was trying to even hand feed them to her cause I watched her doing this on video even! So I started to panic.. Ruth couldn't find anything obvious wrong with her. She just decided to lay on the bottom run part of her little coop with her new little friend who came to lay by her side. She just didn't want to come out or do anything and she seemed truly depressed. By the next day she passed away just like that! I can only think she died of a broken heart after being with us all of her 7 years? She was the only chicken we had because her sister had passed away almost 2 years prior and she went thru a big depression then but we spent lots of time with her and she came out of it and things were well again. She was always with us when we were out back which my husband was always out there doing something. If we went to sit on the deck here she came to sit with us, etc etc. She was very attached to us though she didn't really like being carried.. she did want to be in our presence and company all the time. So she was living her best life truly and we always gave her lots of treats etc.. thus why she was so big and fat! God bless my angel!! So now all I feel is a HORRIBLE guilt for having left her there!! Had I known anything like this could or would happen I swear I would have cancelled our plans and just postponed them until the day she passed or just dropped the idea of moving!! This happened on July 12th and I'm still suffering and can't get past this. I just feel so so very bad. Has this happened to anyone else?? It just makes no sense cause she was sooooooo healthy.

 

[nuthatched]

She died because she was 7, which is getting up there for chickens and the new surroundings caused underlying issues to rear their heads.
If she was actually fat, it might have been organ failure or reproductive issue.
Nothing you did unless you were feeling her too many treats, so don't worry about it.

 

[Moodleroni]

I am SOOOO sorry for your loss. I am like you, I see my chickens like part of my family and I would be equally heartbroken. In fact I recently was when we lost one of ours earlier this year.
I have had to learn that sometimes there is nothing to be done. There is no way you could have know it would happen and she may have just as quickly passed even if you would have stayed.
You did your homework in finding her a loving place to live in your absence and, as you stated, she even found a little friend at her new place.
I've read many many times that chickens are really good at hiding illness/pain, and she may have already been ill.
It will not make you feel any better, or make your pain feel any less horrific, but I feel you did the best you could and that she was happy, loved, and lived a good life with you and her new family.
We send our condolences for your loss

 

[TwoCrows]

I am so sorry for your loss. Chickens can mourn over their flock mates, they are flock oriented creatures who need others of their kind. They can pine away over time after a loss, I've witnessed mourning birds in my own flock after a close pal has passed on.

Moving her could definitely have stressed her body however 7 years is very old for a hen, she was no spring chicken for sure.

I think you gave her a wonderful life, don't feel guilty, she lived a long fruitful life and you did nothing to cause her to pass on.

 

[Abigrayl]

No she did not die of a broken heart. Please stop feeling guilty. Chickens lose their best friends all the time but they bounce back. She died quickly of old age which is how we would all prefer to go instead of a drawn-out and painful decline. She is not a human and she doesn't think like one. Yes she has real emotions but her thought patterns are not like a humans.

 

[BDutch]

Sorry for your loss.
I just make a guess what might cause her dead.

She was big, fat, beautiful feathers, eating and drinking extremely well..

Maybe this. Her age in combination with her (over)weight and getting too much treats.
Maybe giving her a new home did not much good and added up to it. But living with other chickens as a species that thrives best in a flock might have done her good as well.

Hard to tell. We cant really talk to chickens. Just watch, listen and interpret. If sometimes is wrong we can’t see, we just never know for sure.

Btw: 7 years old is very old for production breeds. Heritage breeds and barnyard mixes, not especially meant for high production, and from a large gene pool, often live much longer.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Please let yourself off the hook for this. Know that you gave your hen the best possible life right up to the end. No chicken could have been more loved. Everything you did, yes everything, was with her best interests at heart. Nobody can do better than that! She was happy and thriving and doing well, right up to the end. If she was going to die of a broken heart, she would have started to decline as soon as you left her with your friend. That did not happen! She had her best chicken life right up to the end. As others have said, that indicates she died of physical issues, probably related to her age. You did right by her. Enjoy your memories of her and be at peace.

 

[BDutch]

Please let yourself off the hook for this. Know that you gave your hen the best possible life right up to the end. No chicken could have been more loved. Everything you did, yes everything, was with her best interests at heart. Nobody can do better than that! She was happy and thriving and doing well, right up to the end. If she was going to die of a broken heart, she would have started to decline as soon as you left her with your friend. That did not happen! She had her best chicken life right up to the end. As others have said, that indicates she died of physical issues, probably related to her age. You did right by her. Enjoy your memories of her and be at peace.

Beautifully spoken BigblueHen!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Beautifully spoken BigblueHen!

Thank you. I wish I knew OP had read it and was comforted by what I and others have said.

 

[BDutch]

Thank you. I wish I knew OP had read it and was comforted by what I and others have said.

OP hasn’t been around since 12 October. Sometimes our efforts are just A blowing in the wind.