Hen acting very lethargic suddenly... ended up dying in my arms

[Mikep7719]

My 1 yr old white rock(dominant hen) suddenly started breathing heavy and acting lethargic out of nowhere. Her tail was down and her comb is very pale. She does not feel egg bound. I checked her feathers for mites. She was literally fine 10 minutes before this eating scratch and what not. One other chicken had been acting lethargic a few days ago.
As I was writing this my hen had passed away. She start becoming unresponsive and fluid was coming out of her mouth onto my arm. She then started acting like she couldn’t breathe and passed away in my arms. This is very hard because she was one of my first chicks.

Does anyone know what could it have been. Heart attack, worms, parasites? I’ve been seeing some diarrhea in my flock but not much, they have not been wormed.

Again this was very sudden, I let the flock out to free range and I pet her when she squared for me. Went to do something came back and saw her standing there lethargically.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I am so so sorry for your loss. That is really tragic. I'm very emotionally attached to my birds so I can truly imagine.

Honestly, without a necropsy I am not sure you will ever find the answer to your question. This did seem kind of sudden, even for a chicken so perhaps she was bit by something or ate something poisonous, but even for that you would likely need a necropsy.

 

[Mikep7719]

I ended up opening her up to see if I can determine what happened and save my other hens. I pulled a few white strands from her intestines which I believe are worms. Can someone confirm this for me? Also she had a lot of fat on her as well

 

[humblehillsfarm]

https://the-chicken-chick.com/ has some good posts on worms, along with pictures. Although there may be some resources under the "Articles" tab. They look like worms to me, but I am unfamiliar with parasites/worms.