Can stress kill chickens

[Chicken_Guru]

Seeing blood is not necessarily a requirement when it comes to being killed by a predator. Having a whole flock all die at the same time from a heart attack is just....not likely to happen.

True, a snake could've wrapped around them, but chickens kill snakes.

 

[Eggsakly]

Hi, Michelle. I just lost my beautiful bantam buff Brahma rooster to death from terror over my dog getting out! I am ashamed to say it happened three times in four days! And, she was able to grab three different chickens, one each time. Fortunately, I was right behind her every time and within seconds of her landing on one of my babies I had her collar hauled into the air at my shoulder level. None of the chickens that were caught were injured. There was no blood or marks on them. They are fine.

But my rooster, who was never touched by the dog, was so terrified by the experience that within a couple of days I found him dead in one of the nest boxes where he had retreated. And for the record, he was on his side.

If your chickens were closely related to each other, and of a temperament like my rooster, I can imagine that multiple deaths could occur.

One of the little pullets that my dog caught had been splashed with kerosene when the dog knocked over a bucket chasing her. I had to bathe her four times. The first two times I gave her a bath, she kept fainting, she was so frightened. She would open her eyes and look around, and then pass out again. Especially when she got rinsed off. That almost sent her into a coma.

The last two times, however, she managed to get a bath without passing out. And now she is back with the others, doing fine.

I have no more Brahma roosters, but I have a couple of bantam Wyandotte cockerels that are now five months old, and I'm glad I have them. Just the other day I noticed one of them trying to be the rooster to my Brahma girls, and protect them from me. They looked at him like, "What are you doing!??" and walked around him.

I told him, "you rascal, going after the older women. "

 

[chickens really]

Rat / mice....pellet poison

 

[casportpony]

Hi, Michelle. I just lost my beautiful bantam buff Brahma rooster to death from terror over my dog getting out! I am ashamed to say it happened three times in four days! And, she was able to grab three different chickens, one each time. Fortunately, I was right behind her every time and within seconds of her landing on one of my babies I had her collar hauled into the air at my shoulder level. None of the chickens that were caught were injured. There was no blood or marks on them. They are fine.

But my rooster, who was never touched by the dog, was so terrified by the experience that within a couple of days I found him dead in one of the nest boxes where he had retreated. And for the record, he was on his side.

If your chickens were closely related to each other, and of a temperament like my rooster, I can imagine that multiple deaths could occur.

One of the little pullets that my dog caught had been splashed with kerosene when the dog knocked over a bucket chasing her. I had to bathe her four times. The first two times I gave her a bath, she kept fainting, she was so frightened. She would open her eyes and look around, and then pass out again. Especially when she got rinsed off. That almost sent her into a coma.

The last two times, however, she managed to get a bath without passing out. And now she is back with the others, doing fine.

I have no more Brahma roosters, but I have a couple of bantam Wyandotte cockerels that are now five months old, and I'm glad I have them. Just the other day I noticed one of them trying to be the rooster to my Brahma girls, and protect them from me. They looked at him like, "What are you doing!??" and walked around him.

I told him, "you rascal, going after the older women. "

Sorry for your loss, but again, without a necropsy you cannot be 100% sure, right?

 

[Parront]

Birds will panic in the dark, pile up and smother themselves, fly blindly into anything in their way not just windows and all of these things are caused by fright. No blood required. No heart attack needed, but they are still dead. Keeping the dogs away could do no harm.

 

[casportpony]

Rat / mice....pellet poison

Necropsy?

 

[Eggsakly]

Sorry for your loss, but again, without a necropsy you cannot be 100% sure, right?

Of course, but I will say this: immediately after the first time the dog chased the chickens, his behavior changed. After the second escape, he would not leave the coop anymore. His stress levels were obvious.

I have hand raised everyone of my chickens, and I know them very well.

I am retired and at home all the time, interacting with my chickens daily at length.

You are correct and without a necropsy I cannot be 100% certain about my Brahma. But I'm certain enough for me, because sometimes water is just wet because it is.

 

[chickens really]

Necropsy?

No....Poison down in her feeder and packets out....Same stuff from the garage...Different story though ..

 

[centrarchid]

Birds will panic in the dark, pile up and smother themselves, fly blindly into anything in their way not just windows and all of these things are caused by fright. No blood required. No heart attack needed, but they are still dead. Keeping the dogs away could do no harm.

That is not a mechanism that will kill a small group of chickens. A chicken flying 35 mph hitting a car door or perching bird colliding with a window can have that outcome.

 

[PirateGirl]

Poison would show symptoms before death...Mass kill...My friends ex poisoned all her birds they died over 5 days...

Yes, but if symptoms occurred overnight and were not observed by the owner it doesn't mean they didn't happen. It wouldn't take much for a small young bird to go from healthy to death with toxicity.

For example, my dog recently ate a bad mushroom, she didn't have symptoms until about 6 hours later (middle of the night) and was almost normal again 6 hours later, around the time I would normally get up. I could have easily slept through the whole ordeal and never known. She did wake me in the middle of the night, but had she been out in a kennel/barn/coop, I wouldn't have known.