chicken dead...laying an egg? is this possible?

[ChixFlix]

Went out to find one chicken lying dead, her vent enlarged after just laying an egg (which was lying next to her!) and no other wounds.

Can chickens expire from egg laying?

No blood, no other obvious damage to her body, the other chickens did not peck her, I cannot imagine what happened.

Any observations, comments, etc. appreciated.

 

[Soaring Chicks]

It can happen. Most of the time it is when the egg is very lg. Or it took all she had to lay it.
Hopefully someone on here will give you more info. on it then I can. Sorry for our loss.

 

[SpeckledPullet]

How large was the egg next to her? When was the last time she layed prior to this?

 

[ChixFlix]

Update: I followed up from my DHs report (first post) and viewed the corpse. It has a large rip a bit to the left of her back end, from the vent down and her intestines are gone. Now its looking more like raccoon or something.
Well, thank goodness DH does not want to become a detective like Sherlock Holmes. We'd probably starve.
Thank you for your posts and sympathy.