Chicken Dropped Dead - No signs - Necropsy Results On Post 32

[Nifty-Chicken]

Last night after dusk I was checking on the girls and there on the floor was our RIR hen laid out straight on her back dead. She was only 3 years old. She seemed super healthy and we didn't see any signs of trauma.

I called UC Davis (they do a free necropsy for small flock owners) and instead of driving out to drop her off I opted to overnight her. What is cool is they have an account number which drops the overnight price by 2/3. My 9.2 lb box would have been $27.15 to ship, but using their account (they will then bill me) it only cost $8.69!!!

I double bagged her and added blue ice packs to keep her cold and added lots of padding.

They do a gross observation, bacteria test, toxicology, & histology. All the tests take about 2 weeks and they email the results. I'll see about posting them here once I get them.

I'm hoping it is something simple like she fell off the roost and snapped her neck vs. some crazy disease that will wipe out our flock one by one.

I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: LINK TO RESULTS:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2137974#p2137974

 

[TaLani]

I'm so sorry to hear that about your hen.

At least you won't have to wait long for the results.

 

[HennysMom]

So sorry to hear that Nifty....

 

[Chicken Fruit]

I think chickens just up and die for no apparent, yet totally natural, reasons quite often. Especially production birds like RIR's.

Thats sad!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Ya, I hope it was just something to that specific hen and not systemic to my small flock. I've been wanting to send them a bird for the past year but didn't have one that died cleanly (most were coons or dog attacks). This girl was so well preserved she was perfect.

Having all the tests on her will hopefully give all my girls a clean bill of health or some direction / advanced notice of what is going on.

 

[speckledhen]

It's probably nothing contagious. Ive lost several to internal laying, though usually, you will notice them losing weight and not laying anymore. Let us know what you find out, okay? Sorry you lost her.

 

[ZepChick]

I am so sorry about your hen. We had a very similar experience recently with a 1 yo EE hen. We sent her last week to Oregon State Univ. Veterinary Diagnostic lab for a necropsy, the results came back as visceral gout. Kind of how humans get gout, but the uric acid just builds up inside them, several possible causes. Please post your results and I am sure it was just an isolated incident

 

[CarriBrown]

I'm sorry, Rob.

They say it will take two weeks, but more often than not, I have an email from them by the time I get home from dropping a bird off. They want to get into them ASAP and usually have a pretty good idea of what it is. Then, they email again with some more info after the tests come back.

 

[FisherMOM]

sorry about your girl

....
I hope the results come back clean.

 

[BigSkyChickens]

Sorry to hear about the sudden loss of your hen. Thank you very much for sharing this info. I have heard UC Davis is a wonderful resource; Do you know if they do fecal tests for worms? Thanks.