First Sudden Death

[Chickenman623]

Wow ! I'm at a loss here. One of my hens laid over, started flopping and died within 1 minute ! She seemed perfectly healthy prior to that. I was away from the property when it happened so the little wife witnessed the event had to take care of it.

History: A couple of months back it was recommended I add Omega Egg Maker to their feeding routine. Bought a bag. The next time I opened a new 50 pound bag of feed I added the 5 pound bag of Egg Maker. For the life of me I can't figure how I managed to think that was the right mixture when the bag says 2 to 4 pounds for a 50 pound bag of feed. My mistake. Noticed this last week their poop was no longer a squirt with White and Green mixed together..................it was now mostly a Green kind of fluffy pile with little or no White mixed in. All of the hens seem normal so didn't think much of it. This is the hen we had to take to the Vet when she was young and spent so danged much money on her...........so she was not healthy to start with. I might add she was one of two Speckled Sussex we ordered and the other one died in transit. Don't know what any of that matters but thought I'd add it. I felt her abdomen and I don't think she was egg-bound. We have (had) 7 hens and got them in April last year. We only get 3 to 4 eggs daily, so either not all are laying or they aren't laying every day. I have no idea if the Speckled Sussex had been laying.

I went and bought a new bag of feed (Purina Layer Crumbles as always) and replaced the mixed feed in their feeder with the straight feed. Little wife said she'd done some research while I went to get the new feed and she asked if I was putting pro-biotic in their water. I hadn't been since Summer so immediately remedied that. Did I hurt them by over-feeding the Egg Maker? I've never experience this before with previous flocks so it's a real shock. Of course only you folks will understand, but she was my favorite little hen so it hurts the egg production but it also hurts the heart.

What might cause Sudden Death like that?

 

[azygous]

Coincidence needn't be the cause. Egg Maker is just a bunch of nutrients laying hens need to lay eggs, and if anything, it was your wallet that suffered from buying it as it's more than likely the hens were already getting the nutrients they required from their 50 pound sack of feed.

How old was this hen? What has your weather been lately? Was this hen currently laying eggs?

Some causes of sudden death are internal laying, low blood calcium levels, moldy food, insecticides, poisonous insects. Do any of those items fit as a possibility?

 

[chickenlover8969]

If you have the heart you could dissect it to see if its internal.

 

[Michael Propst]

Can you get her to a vet to have a necropsy done? My vet will do them for me for free and can be very helpful in determining cause of death and if it was something preventable. I had that happen to one of my hens early on and it was a diet issue. Ended up with a fatty liver the burst. She literally died in less than a minute from collapsing.

 

[Chickenman623]

My hen was 8 months old. My Vet wouldn't do a necropsy, I'm fairly sure. I just put her in the trash so no predators would find her. I'll mix the new bag of feed with the mixed bag of feed and that will lower the concentration of the Egg Maker.