First loss - chicken passed quietly in the night

[gtaus]

Yesterday I had 10 chickens, all from the same delivery order in spring of 2019, all appeared healthy. Last evening, on my final egg check, I noticed one chicken was not outside with the others. She was in the coop, just standing there. Later, when I locked up the chicken coop for the night, I noticed see did not fly up to the roosting bar with the other hens. So I had a feeling there was something maybe going on. But, she did not appear to be in any distress.

This morning, I found her dead on the chicken coop floor where she was laying last night. No predator attack. She appears to have passed quietly in the night. All other chickens appear normal and doing fine. When I picked up the dead chicken, she smelled really bad. I turned her over and her vent was all soiled. The chicken that passed was my 2+ year old Americana. She gave me beautiful green eggs for the last few years, but I have not seen any green eggs in months.

I suspect she might have been egg bound. However, we have had a terribly hot summer and last week it was in the mid 90F's, followed by this week where it is getting down to the mid 40F's at night. I don't know if the heat stressed out the chickens or not. My egg production has been very low this summer. I am lucky to get 3 eggs per day from my 10 chickens. I have tried to find signs of egg eaters, but even when I make almost hourly egg collection runs, I'm not getting many eggs. This is my third summer with this batch of chickens, and I suspect that they are just not laying as many eggs anymore, plus the terrible heat we have been experiencing this summer.

Any ideas of what might have happened? Anything I should be checking out to keep the other chickens healthy? Thanks for any responses.

 

[Swbertrand1]

It's very difficult to pinpoint a cause, but you learned something through this loss:

ANY time you see a bird that is acting out of the ordinary (doesn't join the flock, stays confined to the coop or a single spot in a run, doesn't move to the roost bars at night, won't eat/drink, etc, etc, etc), it's time to inspect the bird more closely, paying special attention to their Crop, Vent, Belly, Feet, and Mouth.

Do that immediately if you can. Chickens hide illness VERY well, and you often won't see the sign(s) until they are on the last bit of their downward slide. That your hen's vent was dirty is a tell-tale sign of a host of issues. We check our birds' vents at least every two weeks and immediately if we see some excrement in their feathered area around their vent.

I'm sorry for your loss, but it eventually happens to everyone that keeps chickens. All we can do is take what we've learned and apply it moving forward to try to keep our flock as healthy as possible...

 

[gtaus]

It's very difficult to pinpoint a cause, but you learned something through this loss:

Yep, it took less than overnight for a chicken that appeared healthy during the day to end up dead on the floor the next morning. Just from an external examination, there were no signs of anything abnormal other than the soiled vent when I turned her over. All other chickens appear to be doing fine, but I'll keep my eye out for any abnormal behavior. Thanks.