Hen found limp with neck twisted backward; what could have happened?

[ackie]

She was beautiful. Sorry for your loss.

Was the blood on the floor in poop or by itself?

Are any of your other birds behaving strangely? I know combs can change from pale to redder to indicate a hen is laying, but I dont know what it means to do it back and forth so quickly.

You said there are intermediate roosts so they dont have to roost on the highest one, yeah? They have plenty of room to get down in stages if they need to?

I wish I had answers.

 

[ackie]

Also do all your birds get along? Could someone have attacked her? I guess your see more evidence of it but I once had a dead bird who looked fine except his collarbone area was broken. No indication of a predator sooo I think his brother murdered him. Heh. Stupid cockrells.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. At her age and since she has been acting off, not getting off the roost on her own, the twisted neck, make me think that she could have shown signs of Mareks disease. She may have acted funny, and was attacked by the flock, a common occurrence. She also may not have gotten enough to eat and drink if she was having problems. The best way to know what was wrong, would be to get a necropsy by your state vet lab to look for a cause. Here is a list of state vets:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

 

[pgr]

Her crop does look pretty big. How does it feel?

Her crop felt normal, but her neck seemed swollen. Given the crack in her beak, maybe she tried to fly off the roost in the low morning light and hit the wall. Ugh.

Thank you so much for your thoughts, and for holding my hand through this. Life and death spiral around and together, but it's still hard.

 

[pgr]

jwehl they do get along well, but yes, that's always a consideration...

Eggcessive Mareks was the first thing I thought of when I saw her neck, though her legs didn't look splayed. Thank you for the link for state vets. What made me doubt it that she wasn't getting down off the roost (but jumping from one to the other easily) only briefly and a few weeks ago, but has been completely normal since then all the way up to this AM, other than the somewhat paler comb. This is the chicken that would spend a lot of time near our glass door, chatting and looking in (see above photo...), so we got a good view as far as how she was acting. Poor girl. We'll miss her face following us as we move through the kitchen.

 

[pgr]

She was beautiful. Sorry for your loss.

Was the blood on the floor in poop or by itself?

Are any of your other birds behaving strangely? I know combs can change from pale to redder to indicate a hen is laying, but I dont know what it means to do it back and forth so quickly.

You said there are intermediate roosts so they dont have to roost on the highest one, yeah? They have plenty of room to get down in stages if they need to?

I wish I had answers.

I managed to miss this part of your reply, I'm sorry! The blood was on the shavings by itself, not a lot at all, definitely not in poop. All the other birds seem fine, as did she (unhelpfully) until this AM. As far as roosts, there are three high ones, one low one, and the ladder against the middle (high) one. There's a ventilation hole just below the ceiling level in one wall, that is considerable, maybe the size of a concrete cinder block, but with flaps so the wind doesn't hit them directly. It allows some light, but perhaps not enough in the early morning. I appreciate your thoughts. Ugh.