Chickens dropping dead?!

[Petukhikury]

Over the last few weeks I’ve had three chickens just drop dead out of nowhere. I found that one of the chickens had the area around their vent severely mangled to the point where you could clearly see into her. This could be on the other chickens that had passed away, but I didn’t get to check. I thought it was coccidiosis at first but none of my chickens had the symptoms of coccidiosis, rather behaving completely normally. The coop is clean and well ventilated and they have plenty of fresh food and water. I don’t know what is causing this and I am afraid another one of my chickens will drop dead. All of the chickens that had died were different breeds, a Easter egger, a Wyandotte, and a buff Orpington if that helps any way.

-Edit-
The climate of my area is starting to get warmer but still gets pretty cold at night, but never dropping below 25 degrees Fahrenheit. In the day time it varies a lot from 40 to 60 degrees. There is snow on the ground still but it is starting to melt and get muddy, but the chickens avoid the mud and snow as much as possible. I live in southern Maine

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your loses. Where do you live?

 

[silly4buttons]

I am sorry for your loss

 

[Petukhikury]

Sorry for your loses. Where do you live?

Southern Maine

 

[Hufflefluff]

The vent is concerning. Do you keep any other types of fowl? I've heard of both male ducks and male geese (drakes and ganders) mating chickens to death, since their reproductive systems are so different and they can really harm the more delicate chickens. I'd also get some sort of test done for parasites- many veterinarians will do a fecal float test pretty cheaply, and that's often behind problems that you don't otherwise notice. The other main think I could think of would be some sort of small predator or a contagious disease-- have you seen any predator tracks? Scat? Sorry I can't be more helpful, and sorry for your loss- losing chickens always sucks, especially when you don't know why.

 

[Teila]

Hey Petukhikury



As Casportpony mentioned, your location will assist others. Location, climate, season etc can be important factors when members are responding to any questions you may have and vice versa.

Any chance it could be a predator? "Mangled to the point that you could see in to her" definitely sounds like one.

Are you finding them in the morning in the coop deceased? Or during the day, just dropping while out ranging etc?

 

[casportpony]

Southern Maine

Contact this place and ask about having a necropsy done:
https://extension.umaine.edu/veterinarylab/

 

[Petukhikury]

Hey Petukhikury

View attachment 1276924

As Casportpony mentioned, your location will assist others. Location, climate, season etc can be important factors when members are responding to any questions you may have and vice versa.

Any chance it could be a predator? "Mangled to the point that you could see in to her" definitely sounds like one.

Are you finding them in the morning in the coop deceased? Or during the day, just dropping while out ranging etc?

In the coop when I let them out every morning. It could be a predator as I live in a somewhat rural area. I set up a trail camera pointed at the coop if that’s the case.

 

[Petukhikury]

Contact this place and ask about having a necropsy done:
https://extension.umaine.edu/veterinarylab/

Thank you, I will be sure to try this.

 

[Petukhikury]

The vent is concerning. Do you keep any other types of fowl? I've heard of both male ducks and male geese (drakes and ganders) mating chickens to death, since their reproductive systems are so different and they can really harm the more delicate chickens. I'd also get some sort of test done for parasites- many veterinarians will do a fecal float test pretty cheaply, and that's often behind problems that you don't otherwise notice. The other main think I could think of would be some sort of small predator or a contagious disease-- have you seen any predator tracks? Scat? Sorry I can't be more helpful, and sorry for your loss- losing chickens always sucks, especially when you don't know why.

I don’t own any other animals besides a cat and a dog but they rarely come in contact with the chickens. It might be a predator but I didn’t notice any scat. I did see something that looked like squirrel tracks going near the coop, but squirrels frequent my yard even around the coop.