GRAPHIC What killed my hen? Predator or illness?

[Chicken poppy]

I am back here again because this mystery is still incredibly frustrating to me. I've been trying to figure out what it could have been still, and while looking at the photo, it almost seems like her comb had gone a bit purple. Could an attack have caused that to happen, or would it indicate another issue? My hen that I lost due to a heart or respiratory issue had a very purple comb, while none of my other birds ever did.

She was also found mostly on her back, with her neck curled back and partially under her. I have found three out of the five birds that I have lost (including her) in this exact position, and I was wondering if this means anything specific. The other two birds were lost due to illness.

My first thought was that maybe she could have been having convulsions of some kind, which could also explain the very few feathers that were scattered around her.

I'm mostly just rambling about it at this point, but if anyone has any ideas or input, I would definitely appreciate it. This mystery is really frustrating because I have no idea what could have killed a large hen with almost no blood, very few feathers, and no signs of struggle. I'm genuinely so confused right now.

Is it possible that the other chickens had pecked her and caused the injury? It still doesn't explain the hawk, though.

Okay, here is my two cents. Could it possibly be a vulture? I know the hawk portion is odd, but vultures lack the power in their feet to carry big prey away, so usually eat it where its found. They also love it when its fresh. I think its possible your girl already died and a vulture began to pick on her, maybe getting scared by a hawk (The ones here are very scared of hawks) Who knows, sorry this happened.

 

[Chicken poppy]

That was my thought as well.

Would you think, based on your experience, that she died of heart attack or poor circulation before being disemboweled, or that it was being disemboweled that killed her in this case?

I’d like to add the comb turns purple after being settled from death. If a comb turns purple when alive thats something else but when my broody hen died her comb was very purple not to mention with her head bent back almost like yours. It was no predator, she died of cancer.

(Not looking for any sympathy here, i thought it would provide some useful information as mine had a purple comb due to blood getting settled, and she also looked like her body was twisted in a way.) Maybe its possible yours died a natural death and a predator attacked after that. It can happen so sudden. My hen was acting fine and digging with the chicks the day before and she passed hours after. They mask things well, if you noticed it then its possible it was already to late because of how well they mask things.

 

[WingsysRoost]

Okay, here is my two cents. Could it possibly be a vulture? I know the hawk portion is odd, but vultures lack the power in their feet to carry big prey away, so usually eat it where its found. They also love it when its fresh. I think its possible your girl already died and a vulture began to pick on her, maybe getting scared by a hawk (The ones here are very scared of hawks) Who knows, sorry this happened.

Thank you for the sympathy.

It certainly could have been. There are a lot of turkey vultures here, and they definitely descend fast when they are aware of something in the area. The only thing that doesn't make sense with that theory is that (so I was told, anyway) it looked like there was a bit of blood on her neck, almost like there could have been a bite wound or something. I guess that could have also happened if she had passed very recently and something picked at her almost immediately, while she still had enough blood that hadn't quite settled, or she could have broken a blood feather if she was convulsing or anything like that (since she was in the middle of molt with a fair amount of new feathers coming in on her neck).

I am getting all of this description secondhand, unfortunately, as I did not have the chance to look at her. The picture doesn't show any potential injuries that could have been hidden under feathers.

The hawk could have been eating her in place, as well, since there is no way it would have been able to get enough air with her to clear the fence. She weighed probably six or seven pounds, I would guess, though I never actually weighed her. It would have been a task for any smaller predator (bird or mammal) to move her at all, I think.

I’d like to add the comb turns purple after being settled from death. If a comb turns purple when alive thats something else but when my broody hen died her comb was very purple not to mention with her head bent back almost like yours. It was no predator, she died of cancer.

(Not looking for any sympathy here, i thought it would provide some useful information as mine had a purple comb due to blood getting settled, and she also looked like her body was twisted in a way.) Maybe its possible yours died a natural death and a predator attacked after that. It can happen so sudden. My hen was acting fine and digging with the chicks the day before and she passed hours after. They mask things well, if you noticed it then its possible it was already to late because of how well they mask things.

I'm sorry for the loss of your hen. I didn't even consider cancer as a possibility since she didn't drop weight like my other hen (who I am certain passed from cancer), but she had started to look pale and she was laying soft eggs on and off just like my other hen was in the few months before she passed. I found my duck who was laying soft eggs before she passed in that position, as well, which was why I thought maybe illness. In many of the predator kill pictures that I see, the birds are in all sorts of positions, most of them not that specific position.

Would the comb turn purple within an hour or two? She really wasn't sitting there that long. I think my older dog would have noticed something if a predator was killing one of the chickens right next to the fence (perhaps not a mink, if it happened fast, but he does still have a keen nose and is generally fairly reactive to a whole lot of things) so I'm thinking that it must have happened at some point between when he was let inside and my younger dog was let out, in the span of perhaps an hour or so. My younger dog was let outside and she ran to the fence immediately.

The thing that most confuses me here is that I've always heard a predator will keep coming back once they have made a successful kill, because they know that there is an easy food source. This tells me that either she was attacked because she was sick and an easier target and the predator just doesn't care enough to try otherwise, or that she had already passed due to other causes.

I guess I will never really know, at the end of the day.

 

[WingsysRoost]

The ruckus was in reference to an attack/kill. My girls rarely notice when eagles are just sitting idle watching them. They rarely even respond to the eagle mafia that drops carcasses of sea gulls on top of them, seems like a threat to me . They do usually notice a fly over, but not always, depends, but when an attack occurs, at least here, all hell breaks lose, eagles screeching, birds squaking, dogs freaking out.. squirrels running wild, lol everyone knows something evil is going down. We don't have hawks, but Bald Eagles are pretty large predators.

That makes sense. They definitely did seem unsettled, like something had happened, and they were clustered on the opposite side of the yard, so whatever happened was definitely noticed by them.

In your edit, you were saying that you wouldn't have noticed that one attack if you hadn't seen, and that your flock didn't notice either. Would this be typical for a mink attack?

Thank you again for the input.

(I have to admit that I laughed at the 'eagle mafia' part. That definitely seems like a threat. lol)