Found my girl dead.

[sarahconnor]

The other night my favorite girl was dead on the floor of the hen house. I was peeking in to say good night and saw her lying in the middle of the floor. I did not free range them that day so they were in yard and or hen house all day. The day before they ranged and she was her usual perfect self. She was a super cool polish with an unusual voice. She was about 17 months old. ideas? This happen to anyone else? No signs of any injuries. Maybe dead for 8 hrs ....

 

[azygous]

So sorry. This is upsetting. This happened to me just last month, finding a one-year old hen dead just out of the blue. She had been outside, came into the run and collapsed dead. I later opened her up to try to discover what had killed her. Her abdomen was full of egg yolks. She had been laying internally for about two weeks, as that was the interval since her last egg.

Could this apply to your girl, do you think?

 

[sarahconnor]

So sorry. This is upsetting. This happened to me just last month, finding a one-year old hen dead just out of the blue. She had been outside, came into the run and collapsed dead. I later opened her up to try to discover what had killed her. Her abdomen was full of egg yolks. She had been laying internally for about two weeks, as that was the interval since her last egg.

Could this apply to your girl, do you think?

Thanks for your kind reply.
funny you mention that as one of my first thoughts was is she egg bound because her eggs were unique and larger than a silkie egg and smaller than the regular hen eggs. So I always recognized her eggs. Hadn’t seen any of hers recently as well. (They are molting and production is down)
I have had egg bound hens before but they were usually swollen and showing symptoms. My girl did not show any symptoms and sounds like yours didn’t either. So this is very comforting to me as this might have been the cause. You were smart to do an autopsy. I didn’t have the heart to do one. It’s helpful to me as I thought maybe she hit her head on a ramp as I always am hard on myself when I lose a girl and think it was something I over looked safety wise.
I couldn’t recall seeing any of her unique eggs in the recent past so I think you nailed it.
Thanks so much for this. You made my day. Good luck with your flock!!