Chickie died of unknow causes.

[bulldog-girl]

Went out last night to put chickies to bed and found one dead in our next box. Really weird. No apparent injury. They were not acting strange and all have been their usual energetic selves. I will not cut her open as I cannot do that but wondered if I should put them all on an antibiotic just to make sure? I did notice a stool last week that was slightly tinged with blood (do not know what chicken had this stool-no one would tell me-a pretty closed beek flock I have) so did a dosing of Sulmet just to make sure. Nothing else unusual.

If I should give them an antibiotic what would you guys recommend? I am fairly new to this and have not had any sick chickens until now. By the way. The chickie was about 1 year old. A golden sex link. They free range during the day.

Thanks so much. We will miss her but I know that is part of life and I don't want to lock them up. They enjoy free rangeing so much and so far we don't have a predator problem.

 

[HorseFeathers]

I'm sorry. We had a chick die once from failure to thrive. But now I see she was 1 (that means she's a hen, not a chick). Possibly laying internally problem?
May someone more disease etc. savvy help you.

 

[Akane]

If it died suddenly with no symptoms it probably wasn't an illness. Could have been egg bound since it was found in a nest box or suffered some trauma. I have one that I think suffered some head trauma somehow and is inside for observation after I noticed her very weird behavior. A bit harder blow could probably cause death either from spooking and flying into something or getting hit by another chicken. I also know of people who have lost animals suddenly that seemed completely healthy due to heart issues or brain aneurysms.