dead chicken

[magpie farms]

we found one of our chickens dead this morning. no marks but she seemed to be missing all her belly feathers, i hope it doesnt pass to the rest of our chickens. i thought maybe she ate a bella donna berry as there is alot of these in our yard so i quickly cleared all the ones i could find. any ideas?

 

[satay]

Could a predator have got her? I don't think anything she ate would make her feather fall out like that. Was she in an enclosure when you found her or was she free ranging?

 

[silkiechicken]

Bare bottom? Was it bare before she died? Sometimes red bare bottoms can be caused by internal laying, which can eventually call the end to the girl.

 

[PigeonLady]

OMG I never heard of that. I had a Silkie hen that died like that, a bare red bottom for a few weeks and I found her dead in the nest box. I thought a predator had maybe snatched the feathers from her behind.

 

[magpie farms]

we have them in a fairly large fenced in area in the corner of the yard. there were no scratches or bite marks

 

[jecombs]

Is it possible she got her head stuck in the fence and was dragging her belly to get free? That would explain the bare belly. She might have died from stress.
On of our chickens put her head through a canning ring that had un-earthed from our yard after a bad rain storm. She freaked out trying to get it off. By the time I got down to her and removed it I thought she was going to die. She was very stressed, panting, and she smelled terrible and she had rubbed her belly raw trying to get the ring off her neck.

 

[Reyort]

Is it possible she got her head stuck in the fence and was dragging her belly to get free?  That would explain the bare belly.  She might have died from stress.
On of our chickens put her head through a canning ring that had un-earthed from our yard after a bad rain storm.  She freaked out trying to get it off.  By the time I got down to her and removed it I thought she was going to die.  She was very stressed, panting, and she smelled terrible and she had rubbed her belly raw trying to get the ring off her neck.

I had one die just like this.