Cause of death??

[GreenerPastures]

I'm looking for any help or ideas as to a cause of death to one of my Silver laced Wyandotte hens. I went out to the coop this morning and there was a dead hen about halfway between the house and coop - quite a distance. For the backstory: we didn't get back home last night until after dark. Everything was fine yesterday and there is no sickness that I know of - no unusual behavior. if we leave the house, we leave our dog - a German Shepherd - outside with the chickens for protection. That's what we did last night. My husband and daughter let all the chickens in as soon as we got home and didn't notice the hen - which they would've walked right by - but it was dark so I don't find it unusual that they wouldn't have noticed her if she were already dead.
She was lying face up with no marks, no blood, no missing feathers - absolutely no sign of what could be the cause of death. Her feet were outstretched and so were her wings - looking as if she had been hung... and my husband swears her neck is broken. He grew up on a mini farm and is quite experienced in what a broken neck feels like so I do believe her neck is broken and not just floppy like I've read on some other posts. She was out in the open in the yard so nothing around her to help with clues either. Any help would be appreciated! Thank You in advance

 

[000]

Could your dog have stepped on her? Big dog, little chicken. That is my only idea. sorry.
-G

 

[GreenerPastures]

Hmmm... I can't rule that out that our dog could've stepped on her. He's really exceptional with the chickens and never bothers or chases them. Still... chickens are chickens and they don't normally like him that close to them so they move out of his way in a hurry. in that respect I find it hard to believe that my hen wouldn't have gotten out of his way if he was too close that he would've stepped on her - but it's a possibility I hadn't thought of

 

[000]

Crazy (yet possible[ish]) ideas:

• Died due to heart attack or sudden death of a different disease then the dog stepped on it because it was dark. That broke the neck.
• Chickens can walk after their heads are cut off, it fell from something, broke it's neck, and wandered to the center of the yard before it dropped.
• It had some kind of seizure and (unrealistically) shook enough to snap the neck

They are all VERY far fetched, the first one is the most likely. More realistically, it died a sudden death and when you picked it up it's neck snapped because their bones are so fragile and with no muscle strength holding it together it would make it even easier to break.
What do you think?
-G

 

[BantamFan4Life]

I'm guessing it was probably some sort of predator.

 

[000]

I respectfully disagree. If their was a predator their would be flesh wounds, and more damage done. also the other chickens would have been hurt. + their was the german shepherd that would have stopped predators.
-G

 

[GreenerPastures]

I think i'm just going to have to chaulk this one up to an unsolved mystery. I don't think i'll ever know - I've been racking my brain since it happened and nothing makes sense. The two things that get me the most are her body posture and my dog. Her legs were off the ground - straight away from her body fully extended and her wings were outstretched towards her feet. Very unnatural and as I said before - looking like she had been hung. And then there's my dog - as one of you noted, there's no possibility of a predator with him in the yard. I thought that maybe some person could've killed her being cruel but there's no way anyone would be allowed to step foot on our property while he's out on patrol ( and we're out in the country so it's not like we get a lot of foot traffic or random passers by ) I would say it was an illness but I swear her body wouldn't have looked the way it looked. I've looked in books and all over online and guess i'm at my end... I don't think i'll ever know what happened to her - but thank you all for your help and concern