Death chicken

[Crispy]

Im new to this forum, i thought this was the best section for my topic, if its not then i apologise, and please move it to the right section.

Ok I had 10 chickens until today (4 of 6 weeks, 6 of 3) This morning we killed 2, then some hours later i went to the coop to the the rest and I found a death chicken (one of the 6 weeks), it was face up (the belly up) and with no atack signs (no blood, nor injuries), it seemed to had the neck twisted a bit (im not sure if it was broken or it was just because of its position that it looked like that).
My uncle said it could have been an animal (he says a fox), but we live in the suburbs (Ive never seen a fox arround) and as i sayid i didnt see any atack sign.
Maybe he was sick? of the 4 chickens i bought at first it (the dead) was always the smallest (and it wasnt a litle diference, it seemed 1-2 weeks smaller than the rest) but besides the size there was no other reason to think he has sick.

There are also 3 dogs in my house, but i always take care of not letting them in were the chickens are if im not arround, but in case someone else let the door open while none was arround, could a dog kill a chicken like that?

Im new rising chickens, and I dont know the reason, I would like to know if someone has any idea of what could have happened.

 

[gritsar]

Was there lot of commotion in the coop when you got out the ones you were going to process?
Smaller chicken could have had a weak heart and the commotion sent it over the edge.
If it were a predator I would expect to see at least quite a bit of feathers laying around, if not wounds.

 

[CMV]

Chickens have also been known to break their own necks by flapping about inside their runs or coops. If your birds put up a fuss when you came to collect the 2 butchered birds, then it's possible your chicken flapped into a wall and broke its own neck or gave itself a terminal head injury. It happens. Silly chickens.

 

[PortageGirl]

Quote:
ditto

Chickens are NOT the smartest bird on the roost.

 

[Crispy]

Quote:
Yea, that was the same that other uncel of mine said, i thought it couldnt be, but, it makes sense.
And now that someone mentions the thing of the feathers, there were some out the coop in direction to the door, now im thinking it could have been my dog , he gets a litle nervious when hes arround the chickens and has "bite" (its not bite, i dont know the word in english, like biting but softer, and without causing damage)them once or twice, taking in account he behavies better when im looking at him, maybe some1 let the door open. (I didnt prepare the 2 chickens, and didnt see them at the moment of taking them out).
Tanks for anwering, now at least I know it was not disease or an external predator, Ill have to be more careful.

I have another question, could that chicken be eaten now? or its better just to throw it? since i dont prepare them, ill have to wait until past-tomorrow (I put it on a frezer...).

 

[PortageGirl]

If you were quite sure that it died of a broken neck it would be safe to eat, but it would have to be bled out rather quickly and be cleaned quickly to be edible, waiting a day or more, even in the freezer would make the meat very unpalatable. It -could- be used for a dog's food, but I do not think it would be good to use for the human table.

If you dog grabs a chicken that way, even if it has a soft mouth and doesn't bite hard, it could easily scare the chicken to death. Heh... we really have to watch our dogs closely, all they can do is act on their instinct and it sounds like he just can't -quite- contain the urge to grab some "take away" chicken, then thinks maybe it's not such a good idea after all!

 

[journey11]

Yeah, I had a 2 week old chick startle and bonk it's head on the edge of the brooder lamp and it died.

 

[Judy]

I will not eat a chicken when I am not sure what it died of.