Chicken Death Unknown

[IndigoFarms]

Good morning everyone, we have about 50 White Chantecler chickens we raised from chicks, they are about 6 months old and they live in a 24x12 coop well insulated, dirt floor for dusting, nice perches for all of them, I free range them 2-3 times a week (when I don't leave for town to early as they will get picked off by early morning predators)

always a constant supply of food (scratch) and water


I came out to the coop Tuesday afternoon to check food and water, when I let the birds out to free range, I noticed there was one head down in the corner of the coop, I immediately thought it was a dead bird, but when i picked her up I noticed that she was alive, but seemed very lethargic and when I put her down she walked over to another corner and went back to the same head down position, I picked her up and checked her out, she seemed otherwise healthy, and listened to her breathing, there was no runny "nose" or scratchy breathing, her eyes looked sharp and healthy...

I put her into a next box to protect her from the roosters, and when I came back out the following afternoon she was dead in the same next box, I tried to examine her poops, but they seemed to look normal (white and gray)

There was no sign of any issues with any of them the day before, and it happened awfully sudden, any advice or ideas are welcome


Thanks


Mattimus

 

[realsis]

Its really hard to say without taking the body to a lab. Was she Laying already? I had a similar incodent happen in my flock. First I lost a bird without any signs then another bird was lethergic and sluggish. I lost her then my third bird had symptoms of wheezing and I ended up loosing her. It turned out to be a respitory virus. Even though the other birds didn't seem to have symptoms of respitory illness. The thing is chickens are so good at hiding illness. It could have been a number of things that caused her death. Keep an eye on the rest of your flock just incase. I wish I could be of more help but without very many clues its almost impossible to make a guess. I'm so sorry you lost your bird. You can take the body to a lab or college and have them do the lab work then you can know for certain what happened. Sorry I couldn't be of more help

 

[IndigoFarms]

Thanks Realsis, that's what I was thinking as well some sort of respiratory virus, the flock JUST started laying, we get 1 - 2 eggs daily from the group, I will be keeping an eye on them all for sure, added some molasses to their water supply. I won't be getting the bird tested, we run a farm so we have gotten use to the occasional loss now, we don't name our girls any more :<


Thanks again