First casualty

[swamy]

Just venting here. We made it almost 10 months with our new batch of hens without even a hint of trouble.

Chored them in the morning yesterday and all eight were energetic, running around, foraging, etc. Stopped by the house at noon and one of our BO's was laying in the coop face down in an area where they scratch around. Looked like she just dropped over in mid peck. She was just starting to stiffin up. She even layed an egg earlier in the day.

Inspected her very well (didn't open her up) and looked to be the picture of health. She was very large and had two deformed toes since she was a chick...maybe some other internal parts didn't develop right too?

 

[seminolewind]

That's awful. Judging by the acuteness and position, my guess would be a heart attack. It would be something sudden, otherwise she would have run around.