Chicken died of internal laying.

[Rosalind]

I checked on my chickens this morning, gave them another scoop of food and went to work. Got home, one Buttercup hen was dead on the floor with a bit of poo around her butt.

I did a necropsy, and it looks like she had a couple of eggs bunged up inside her oviduct, and couldn't get them out. Her vent was swollen and had an egg stuck. She was still warm when I picked her up. If only the train hadn't been late, maybe she would still have been alive when I got home and I could have helped her.

I know, I know, once they start laying internally you've got to choose between several hundred $$ in spaying fees, or an ax. Still, I just hate it that she died like that. At least I know it wasn't anything contagious. All her other organs and muscles looked pretty good, so I also know that they are all eating properly and exercising well. I just feel horrible that I came home, like, 30 minutes late to find a dead chicken with a homemade saddle on, who was just starting to get her feathers in on her back after the boys were giving her a rough time.

 

[chicknmania]

She had a good home with you.

 

[ruth]

I'm so sorry. In many ways they are very fragile creatures. In many other ways they are tough as nails. When you think about it, the whole produce an egg every 26 hours thing is a real miracle. It's not surprising that something goes wrong sometimes.