Chicken dead with no apparent cause

[Xtina]

I lost my RIR yesterday, at some unknown point.

. I found her dead this morning, when I went to go let the ladies out and only one came out of her coop and looked at me as if to tell me something was very wrong. It was dark, so I got the flashlight and it didn't take me long to see a dead chicken under the hazelnut tree. I cooped up the barred rock and went to work. I just came home, expecting to investigate and find that she had been killed by a raccoon or something and was surprised to find no visible damage to her body. The only thing that seemed slightly out of the ordinary was that her butt feathers seemed covered in some kind of schmutz...possibly blood, but it didn't seem like blood. Nothing was coming out of her vent (intestines, stuck egg) that I could see. So apart from being dead, there just seemed to be no cause. I just checked the barred rock and found no evidence of mites. She looks healthy as a horse, if not a little sad that she's the only one left out there now. (I've got new ladies in the brooder, so she won't be alone for long).

So...what can I do to identify this? She's not only two and a half years old, so I thought that was too young to be concerned about her dying of old age. Can't chickens live at least till 8? If there's some kind of disease affecting my chickens, I'd like to know about it. Also, I don't know if this is related, but in the last few weeks, their food intake seems to have dropped considerably. But they've been on this food for months. It's not a new bag or anything, so I don't know if there's something wrong with it. They do not appear to be starving for some reason and there's plenty of food and water out there.

Random dead chicken...what in the world? I'm a little disturbed. I feel like there could be an angle I'm missing to this.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Have you ever wormed your chcikens? worms can bring them down fast and you don't have to see them for them to be present. the best wormer now is Valbazen it's a paste and is actually for goats and cattle but is also used for poultry, not sure of the dose but if your interested I'll find out. also many are finding mites/and lice on their chickens this time of year so might want to check your remaining hen around her vent area and under her wings. heres the worming chart and also one for mites and lice. Sorry for your loss. worming, http://www.healthybirds.umd.edu/disease/deworming birds.pdf and lice mites
http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018html

 

[Xtina]

I have never wormed them. Where can I buy wormer?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Most feed stores and also TS carry a wide array of wormers. If you haven't wormed this could be the problem worms are deadly if left unchecked. So that would be first priority. If you go with Valbazen which is the safest to use kills the worms gradually so they don't all die at once the dosage is 1/2cc for standard size fowl and 1/4 cc for small size.