Chicken dead of unknown cause

[cackler]

We kept our chickens and guineas in the coop one day this week due to the thick fog. When I checked on them in the afternoon, one of the chickens was dead. Everyone else was fine. I didn't have any idea that she was ill. I don't know for sure if she was one of the older hens that I got from a friend in the Spring or if she was one of the peeps that we raised in the Spring......but she was rigored and without any apparent injury at all. Is this the way they die with old age? It looked like she just fell over and that was it.

 

[seminolewind]

Sure it could have been old age, heart attack, sometimes you just never know. Sorry

 

[Hozer]

I had a young rooster drop dead recently. Not sick, no fighting, no injury....just dead. My friend says sometimes they do that. To look on the bright side, better a rooster than a young hen.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[cackler]

Yes, I wish we would've banded the 'younguns' back in the Summer when we thought we'd have a hard time telling them apart from the older birds. At that point we thought, gosh, they're really different - we'll be able to tell them apart forever.

Anyway, I'm hoping that it wasn't a younger bird but who knows. I'll just think it was an older one and on we'll go.

 

[Shared Acres]

I've had that happen too. Could be worms.

Mine all seemed healthy, so when it happened I called the lady who did my NPIP testing and she came and picked him up and they tested him for free and did an autoposy. They told me worms--which I had no clue since they had no symptoms, but other then that, they couldn't find anything.

Maybe see if the state will come and take him? Or try worming.

 

[cackler]

I already took care of her so there's no way to have her looked at, however, the worm idea is a possibility. What do you do to treat/prevent worms? I haven't really done much in that dept. - I'm a newbie to all of this.