Hen not eating, making a strange vocalization

[MissPrissy]

Quote:
Actually, no, it did not have to be anything serious.

It is not uncommon for chickens to pass quickly with little, no or few signs of anything wrong.

As harsh as it may sound it is accepted in the short term that a percentage of chicks will never reach maturity, the first few weeks in their life is a major hurdle, and as they approach one year there is another big hurdle for fatality.

We may not like it but such is the life of chickens.

 

[thkosan]

That has not been my experience. It may be that most people do not know what their chickens die of and therefore do not realize how seriously ill, diseased or internally malformed they were. I take ALL of my deceased chickens to the poultry diagnostics lab at the local university for necrospy. I have never had a chicken go downhill so quickly without having had a serious problem.

We hatch all of our own chicks here and I also have never had a chick not reach maturity, with the exception of a crazy broody hen who killed the five chicks she hatched.

This hen was given to me at the age of about 8 weeks old, along with five other chickens. In the last two weeks I have lost two of them and one has Marek's. I will have them all necropsied to find out what happened, but I'll bet it was an internal malformation or undiagnosed disease.

 

[Pine Grove]

I'd say for something to cause death it has to be serious..chickens just don't die for no reason at all..With the sound she was making that you described, sounds like possible Gapeworms

 

[Wynette]

Oh, goodness...I'm SO sorry to hear the news. Please let us know what the necropsy report indicates. HUGS!

 

[thkosan]

Necropsy results in.... and NOTHING. Best doc and poultry diagnostics lab on the planet (in my opinion) and they could find no reason for my girl's demise. There was some metal in her gizzard (but she tested negative for lead poisoning) and three roundworms in her gut, but that was it. Pathology all negative. I could have spent a few hundred dollars getting tissue samples and additional blood work but declined because there was no evidence of any contagious disease that could infect my other birds (and I am totally strapped for cash.) No gape worms. No Marek's lesions. No congential disease/malformations. No bacterial, viral or fingal infection. It's enough to make you nuts...

 

[Wynette]

Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry to hear that. It's frustrating, for SURE. But, at least you know to a good certainty that she had nothing that could be passed to your other poultry. I'm so sorry.