Found my 5 month old Americauna on the floor of their coop!

[Vaughn-Chickens]

Hi there,

I found one of my Americauana hens on the floor of the coop this morning, barely alive. She was laying on her stomach, legs underneath her and her head curled under. I thought she was just sleeping at first, but realized that she wasn't laying down in a natural position. Her eyes were closed and she barely moved when I touched her. She would open her eyes a bit if I lifted her head, but was pretty much immobile. We are with the chickens at least 4-5 times per day, sitting with them, or checking for eggs, and everything was normal yesterday. I'm wondering if she fell from her perch last night and maybe broke her neck or something? We "put her out of her misery" this morning and burried her under one of our big pine trees. We weren't sure if it could have been some kind of virus or an injury. All of our other hens (and one Americauna roo) are fine so I'm really hoping it''s not something that will affect the others! We had 20 hens (19 now) and the one rooster, with a few different breeds.She didn't have any signs of trauma or illness.

Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Mykee]

It sounds like you might be right about her breaking her neck or something. I don't really know, but if you are sure she wasn't sick before, then it was probably something internal. Have you noticed any mites or cuts? Was she picked on a lot? Sometimes our guinea hens would die suddenly, typically overnight. How high is their perch, and how much space do they have to land?

 

[Vaughn-Chickens]

I haven't seen any mites or cuts, etc. They have a large coop, about 8X12 and it's probably 10-11 feet high (my hubby built it) their roosts are high (7-8 feet up maybe?) because we heard that they like to go up high for heat and it mimics a tree...? They have 2 roosts that are about 3 feet apart and then another that goes diagonally the entire length of the coop. We did them all the same height so no one would get pooped on, or fight for the highest roost.