Daughter found chicken dead in run this morning

[tweetzone86]

She was born a year ago on May 8.

No, all of them were in the temp run while we were cleaning out the chicken run. We don't spray our backyard because of the chickens and my vegetable garden. I do wonder if she got into something that maybe fell back there- my friends smoke outside when they're here and they usually put their cigarette butts into an empty soda can, but I wonder if one had fallen when wind blew one down (though I can't see how that would kill her?)

She didn't appear sick at all, which is why her suddenly being dead was so shocking. She seemed happy as a clam- until we found her dead this morning If she had gotten into the poison, it would have been Saturday when she did so.

A thought I just had- we have seen a couple mice here and there in the yard, or voles (the brown ones that are a cousin of the common house mouse). Maybe someone else in the neighborhood had set poison traps and she ate one of the mice that came through the yard? I know chickens eat mice...

 

[Eggcessive]

It can be common for chickens that age to suddenly die of a heart ailment. Did she lay eggs or stop laying at some point? A necropsy by the state vet is the best way to get a diagnosis. If it was a reproductive problem or liver disease, that is fairly obvious to find in a home necropsy. Either way, it would have been good to ease your mind to find out it was natural causes. Hopefully, it was, and good luck with your other chickens.

 

[tweetzone86]

It can be common for chickens that age to suddenly die of a heart ailment. Did she lay eggs or stop laying at some point? A necropsy by the state vet is the best way to get a diagnosis. If it was a reproductive problem or liver disease, that is fairly obvious to find in a home necropsy. Either way, it would have been good to ease your mind to find out it was natural causes. Hopefully, it was, and good luck with your other chickens.

On laying, they all laid around the same shade of brown, so I am not sure if she was laying or not.

I sure hope so. My girls can't take much more right now (we lost our first one around a month ago to three screws and an open safety pin that she swallowed).

 

[Kathy Golla]

I totally get it. Chickens are much more delicate than I thought when I got into it.
They are like the canary in the coal mine.
I imagined like the pioneer wife I would just have to throw the chicken some scratch grain out of my apron every once in a while.
I’ve had dogs, cats, rats, snakes, parrots, geckos, rabbits, turtles, bees. Chickens by far, the learning curve is huge and they have me on the defensive more than any animal by far.

 

[Bettyboop7499]

We close on the land June 11. If she did get into poison I don't want to risk another animal-coyote or dog or what-have-you-digging her body up and eating it and getting poisoned too.

So my girls said goodbye to her, and I bagged her up and put her in our trash can so that other animals stay safe. If it was clear that another animal had attacked her, I would have done a funeral in the backyard and buried her, but with possible poison exposure I am not going to take that risk.

On a side note- is it possible a cat could have gotten her but it wouldn't have been obvious? I would think that would involve bleeding and mussed up feathers.

That is true, didn't thing about something digging it up. Had it been an animal for sure you would have seen signs. I hope the girls are doing better.

 

[tweetzone86]

That is true, didn't thing about something digging it up. Had it been an animal for sure you would have seen signs. I hope the girls are doing better.

I am starting to wonder if possibly she ran into one of the 4x6 heat treated oak beams we had in there supporting the wire roof. She was found laying sideways right next to one (got free from heavy equipment pallets). I was mowing the lawn the day before and got close to the run, and since I was rushing to get the house ready for our appraisal I hadn't checked on the chickens after that because we had to leave.

At any rate, the other 10 that are left are doing just fine, thank goodness, so I am thinking she must have eaten something poisonous, or got bit by a spider, or got trampled or ran into that beam, or maybe got egg bound and we didn't realize it in the chaos of trying to get things ready for our house sell lately. At any rate, it looks like a localized incident and not illness thank goodness. Still heartbreaking, but at least the others are ok and my girls are slowly becoming less afraid of checking on them (out of fear of finding another "chickie" as they call them had died).

Just been a rough month as far as our chickens go