Dead Chicken - "Healthy" yesterday - Green turds?

[Junkmanme]

Obviously, I'm a NOVICE at this "chicken-keepin".

I have (had) 4 VERY healthy (apparently) Buff Orpington hens yesterday. Also have a FINE, mild, considerate, protective Leghorn rooster.

Then hens have been laying consistently LARGE eggs (at least 1 per day and sometimes 3 or 4), despite COLD, WET, weather.

I found one dead in the coop this morning........?

I noticed "green-colored" dropping in the coop. Is this an indication of some disease?

I'd not like to loose the other hens. They are GREAT LAYERS and I was hoping to let a "broody" raise some chicks when the weather improves this Spring.

ANY SUGGESTIONS ? or Guesses as to what killed my hen?

Thanks for ANY input to this NOVICE,
Junkmanme

 

[Laskaland]

Could she have eaten something poisonous? Any other symptoms? How were the eyes, smell?

 

[Junkmanme]

Possibly ate something bad..........but no bad smell, etc. She was still a little bit warm when I found her dead.

 

[jforsness]

I'm sorry to hear about this

 

[hinkjc]

I'm pretty sure green is a sign of bile, meaning they haven't been eating enough/processing food. Could be due to illness, pain, etc. I'd say there's an underlying cause, however the only way to know for sure is to get a necropsy.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Sorry for your loss. Unfortunately the chicken world is a cruel and unpredictable environment. We are constantly warned not to make our chickens pets unless we are willing to have emotional stress from the death of a friend. Personally I have only made one friend in the chicken world.

I have had MANY birds just up and die, no symptoms, no injuries and the rest of the flock is doing great. You hen could be older are a bad heart or anything. Chickens are pretty frail animals and they do have to live in a relatively harsh environment.

I have a red jungle fowl rooster that I raised from an egg. He free ranges on the property and he is the ONLY roo that will call the hens in at night. He circles all the buildings and makes sure that everyone is in the barn WHEN he thinks it is time to come in.

This afternoon I caught him on the rail of the back porch waiting for me to come home. I opened the door and fed him, from my hand, bread until he was full.

He really is something else, I just Love the little turd.

If something would happen to him I would be very sad, but I know eventually he will pass.

BTW, after I feed him I picked him up for a looksie to see how he was doing. i do not get a chance to do this in the morning because he is off flying over my head when i open the barn door. He looked good.

 

[Junkmanme]

THANKS for the replies!!!

These hens are approx. 8-9 months old...so should be in Prime of Health........

There are a lot of rotted leaves/grass cuttings, etc. in the area that they play in daily. AND there may have been some unknown small piece of "junk" available for eating in that area.

They have been eating well with 22% layer feed conbined with whole milo. They scratch in the old leaves(decaying) quite a lot. I suppose they are looking for worms. (I'm sure all the earthworms are 6 or 8 feet underground this time of year!)

Perhaps one of the other hens or the rooster pecked her in the head.....but I didn't see any indication of this sort of thing and they have been quite peaceful with each other.

????????
Again, THANKS !!! for ANY and ALL input.
Junkmanme

 

[ivan3]

Sorry to hear this. It is sometimes possible to determine what the causitive agent/source was by performing a `gross' necroscopy. Below is a link to a video of how to perform a necroscopy from a doc over at the Animal Sciences School at MU. The focus is on the reproductive tract (a likely suspect in the sudden death of otherwise healthy pullets/hens).

It isn't for the squeamish:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/v...le-reproductive-tract-of-a-mature-hen-221261/

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Is there any possibility that she could have gotten into some mouse/rat poison? Most of it is green and could have passed in the green feces.

 

[Junkmanme]

Thank you, Ivan 3, for the link to the video. It is very interesting.

Although I am no surgeon, I have "dressed out" many wild game in my youth, so I'm not very "squeamish".

I have "frozen" the hen in a plastic trash bag, so I may decide to look into this a bit deeper in the next few days when I have time (that I don't prefer to use otherwise). I'll think about this.

It is good to have this kind of information available. THANK YOU!

Appreciate your help!
Junkmanme