Chicken Suddenly Died

[isabelwhite]

So, I'm new with this back yard chicken thing and one of our two chickens just died. We weren't told the age when we bought them, but they seem to be full size but with light combs, so they aren't fully mature.

This morning I went out to feed them but they hadn't finished their last bowl of feed so I waited until now to bring some more. When I checked, they had eaten all the food and had all the water, but I opened up their nesting box, Fritz was laying on the floor with her eyes closed and Scarlett O'Hen-a was guarding her. I always feed them chicken feed from the feed store and some extra pumpkin seeds I had in the house and whatever veggies we don't finish. Yesterday we had some chard that was just beginning to wilt so I left that for them thinking they might be interested. Not sure if this had anything to do with it. Scarlett seems fine, but Fritz is definitely dead. We live in San Francisco and the weather has been between 50 and 80 since we got them, so nothing that should kill a chicken.

Any ideas?? I'm worried for the other chicken now!

 

[isabelwhite]

I gave them tomatoes the other day and I just read that the leaves can be toxic, is this enough to kill them?

 

[Michael Apple]

I gave them tomatoes the other day and I just read that the leaves can be toxic, is this enough to kill them?

I'm sorry about your hen. Where did you read that? If the bird didn't exhibit any symptoms before death, it could have ingested something toxic. Do you have any fertilizer or poisons around the yard? A compost area with any molds or fungi? It could be a number of things, and the only way to know for sure is by taking the bird to CAHFS at UC Davis to have a necropsy done.