Does anyone know if chickens can die of fright. We had a horrific lightning and thunder storm the o

[mamahen10]

Last night we had a horrific thunder and lightning storm, in the morning I found one of my girls dead in one of the nesting boxes. First off not one my girls ever sleeps in the nesting boxes, so to find her in the box in the morning was a surprise. When she went to bed last night she was perfectly healthy, she was eating, running around and showed no sign of illness. Does anyone know if they can die of fright? (There was no sign of trauma to her body)

 

[Animol]

I know they can die of fright, as all animals can but usually it's caused by the heart stopping. If none of the others are dead, perhaps she was just more spooked or had some sort of heart defect and the storm set it off.
Sorry for your loss :'(

 

[coffeychicks]

I know rabbits can. My heart goes out to you

 

[DCchicken]

Unfortunately I have witnessed this myself. I recently lost my entire flock to a weasel attack. However, two of the birds (a Red Star and a Delaware that were buddies) crawled into a small little area outside the coop and hid there until the weasels left. Their little hiding space is covered by grass. Both of them died right where they were hiding without any lost feathers or scratches. I assume their hearts just stopped. It's the first time I have ever witnessed an animal scared to death.

Sorry to hear for your loss.