Hen freaked out and died

[vigario]

Let my hens out of their coop this morning, everything and everyone looked fine. Watered and fed as normal. Came back out at noon to let them out to free range and one RIR hen was just sitting there making a weird noise and almost gasping. I helped her out of the run and into my backyard with the rest of the hens and she just sat there. I knew something was wrong as she just let me pet her. I checked her over for marks, cuts, stuff where it shouldn't be, but she looked fine. I called my wife out and by the time she came out the hen was thrashing her head around. She would try to stand and fall backwards. We walked over to inspect the other hens and all of the sudden the hen did (and I am not exaggerating) six back flips and died.

I have not idea what happened or why it happened.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

 

[GoldenSparrow]

I am so sorry you had to witness this. it is a scary thing to see

my chickens have had these Seizures, before they died too.

How old was your hen?

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I'm really sorry. I was shocked when one of my chickens had spasms and died in front of me. When I posted for information, I was told the spasms are pretty normal, but it sounds like your hen's spasms were very strong. It can be hard to say what caused your hen's death, it could have been something congenital like a seizure disorder or heart problem. Keep an eye on the condition of your other hens, but it is a good chance she died of something non contagious.

 

[Erica]

I would think the backflips are part of the process of dying suddenly. It may have been heart failure or may have been any of a number of other things. Sad but not necessarily something you could have prevented.

Best of luck with your other birds.