Dead chicken! Green skin, What do you think happened?

[Eggcessive]

Buffalo gnats have been known to smother a chicken to death. We have had a couple of threads about that in the past few years. They are so numerous they get into the nostrils and beak and suffocate them. I have noticed lots of gnats that died in my coop water bowls overnight before, so they can be a problem. I don’t know about green skin, other than bruising. Perhaps she was in distress or was bruised by running into something. Very sorry for your loss.

 

[Weeg]

Buffalo gnats have been known to smother a chicken to death. We have had a couple of threads about that in the past few years. They are so numerous they get into the nostrils and beak and suffocate them. I have noticed lots of gnats that died in my coop water bowls overnight before, so they can be a problem. I don’t know about green skin, other than bruising. Perhaps she was in distress or was bruised by running into something. Very sorry for your loss.

Interesting, I had no idea. We have them with the horses but they’ve never been more than a bother. That’s good to know.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are a couple of articles about buffalo gnats or black flies:
https://extension.msstate.edu/sites/default/files/publications/information-sheets/is1861.pdf

https://the-chicken-chick.com/protecting-chickens-from-killer-black-flies-buffalo-gnats/

 

[T-R-O-U-B-L-E]

Seems very unlikely to me.
Mites or lice yes, but gnats?

No mites or lice. But when I say we had gnats, it wasn't a small swarm. I could barely go around the coops without them crawling into my nose, ears, and any other little hole on my face. Like I said, this hen was already in poor health, which would explain. And she sat in one spot, inside all day. And we probably had 100s if not 1000s of gnats.

 

[Weeg]

No mites or lice. But when I say we had gnats, it wasn't a small swarm. I could barely go around the coops without them crawling into my nose, ears, and any other little hole on my face. Like I said, this hen was already in poor health, which would explain. And she sat in one spot, inside all day. And we probably had 100s if not 1000s of gnats.

Wow! That’s crazy!
I’ve never had such sever problems, only annoyances to the horses. Best of luck keeping them at bay, I know catnip, lavender, rosemary and others aromatic herbs are good insect repellents, maybe that would be helpful to plant? Lemon thyme and citronella too.

 

[defazzy]

The green discoloration is probably biliverdin, a bile pigment that turns bruises green. It could result from injury or inside decomposition after the bird died.

There is a disease called the Green Muscle Disease, but that's more local necrosis of the breast tenders. The bruises could also come from injuries, e.g., fighting, predators, etc.

Another thing I'm thinking of (since you mention the comb and other body parts have a green tinge) is internal bleeding caused by injuries or disease, especially when the diet is low in vitamin k, which is needed to heal internal bleeding. Is it possible your chicken ate from poisoned food? Rat/rodent poison is known to cause internal bleeding. In fact, it's how rodents slowly die after a while from internal bleeding that won't heal anymore.

Does any of the other birds have the same green discolorations? Or was it a one-off?

 

[T-R-O-U-B-L-E]

Wow! That’s crazy!
I’ve never had such sever problems, only annoyances to the horses. Best of luck keeping them at bay, I know catnip, lavender, rosemary and others aromatic herbs are good insect repellents, maybe that would be helpful to plant? Lemon thyme and citronella too.

Its the first time I have ever had them this bad and the first time my chickens died from it. To keep them away I get vanilla extract and dilute it to spray around the coop and on the chickens and then I hang vanilla scented air fresheners. This has always worked, however Ive only dealt with small swarms. Vanilla did not phase this years swarm. So I got chemical. Permithrin, paired with vanilla seemed to at least keep them at low numbers. I also got First Saturday Lime to sprinkle around. All three deaths that I experieced happened within 36 hours. I went out to check on chickens before school, and everybodies fine. I get home after school and the 2 chicks are dead (there were no other chicks.) And it appears that there is no other damage. Except when my sister picks up her rooster, he has green tinted skin. The next morning, everything is fine. The next evening, I come home, mix up some vanilla spray, and me and my sister go to the coop. We are getting chickens out and spraying them. We come to my sister's hen, we get her out and before we start spraying her, I can tell she is almost gone. Then she died. It was all very fast. Then, we finally got the gnats under control. After a few days, Chipmunks (roosters) green skin slowly disappeared.

 

[B_o]

The green discoloration is probably biliverdin, a bile pigment that turns bruises green. It could result from injury or inside decomposition after the bird died.

There is a disease called the Green Muscle Disease, but that's more local necrosis of the breast tenders. The bruises could also come from injuries, e.g., fighting, predators, etc.

Another thing I'm thinking of (since you mention the comb and other body parts have a green tinge) is internal bleeding caused by injuries or disease, especially when the diet is low in vitamin k, which is needed to heal internal bleeding. Is it possible your chicken ate from poisoned food? Rat/rodent poison is known to cause internal bleeding. In fact, it's how rodents slowly die after a while from internal bleeding that won't heal anymore.

Does any of the other birds have the same green discolorations? Or was it a one-off?

She could’ve ate a bug that died from some posion. I checked the others and they have white/pinkish skin and they all seem healthy. Im not sure if the feed has vitamin k since the bag was thrown out. Next time we get them feed ill check the ingredients. We have been haveing trouble with algae in the water could that be have anything death related?

 

[B_o]

There is not a lot of flying bugs of any kind inside the coop. There is some here and there but thats it. And where the gnats usually are, there is none.

 

[Jmcintosh23]

Green is generally a sign of bruising in chickens.

The bottom of my hen was like dark green and other parts red but I think it was just the blood pooling maybe I'm not sure. The comb was red and tips were dark red and mouth had slime or something and look like there was fecal matter there at the site. No cuts anywhere no bleeding.. found mine this morning just one hen