Hen randomly died

[jessipanda]

Hi everyone, I had a small flock of just two Polish hens. They were sisters and turned 4 years old in February. Yesterday morning, both girls were acring completely normal. I let them out of their coop into their run & fed them as usual.

My family and I left for the day and when we returned, we had a dead hen in the run. I immediately removed her and gave her a thorough look-over to see what could have caused her to pass away so young, but couldn't find any signs of disease or anything. No mites/lice, didn't have any marks on her as though she was attacked by her sister or a predator, and her vent appeared normal so I don't believe she was egg bound. Pretty sure she even laid an egg prior to passing as there were no eggs when I let them out of the coop and there were two eggs when we found her a few hours later.

We live in Florida and is has been a very warm summer already, but the run gets plenty of shade from the trees so I'm not sure if heat stroke is the culprit or not. The other hen appears to be fine as well, but I'm worried I'm missing something and don't want her to die on us too. What else can I check and/or do to ensure we don't lose our other girl?

 

[DobieLover]

Hi everyone, I had a small flock of just two Polish hens. They were sisters and turned 4 years old in February. Yesterday morning, both girls were acring completely normal. I let them out of their coop into their run & fed them as usual.

My family and I left for the day and when we returned, we had a dead hen in the run. I immediately removed her and gave her a thorough look-over to see what could have caused her to pass away so young, but couldn't find any signs of disease or anything. No mites/lice, didn't have any marks on her as though she was attacked by her sister or a predator, and her vent appeared normal so I don't believe she was egg bound. Pretty sure she even laid an egg prior to passing as there were no eggs when I let them out of the coop and there were two eggs when we found her a few hours later.

We live in Florida and is has been a very warm summer already, but the run gets plenty of shade from the trees so I'm not sure if heat stroke is the culprit or not. The other hen appears to be fine as well, but I'm worried I'm missing something and don't want her to die on us too. What else can I check and/or do to ensure we don't lose our other girl?

So sorry for your loss.
At this point the only way to know what happened to her is to have her necropsied at your state lab. Do you still have her body?

 

[Eggcessive]

There have been others in FL lately who have lost hens in the heat. It is just a guess what killed her without getting a necropsy by the state poultry lab. Sometimes we can do a necropsy at home and spot obvious problems, such as internal laying, cancer, fatty liver disease, and a few others. Make sure that your other hen is not overweight, and cut back back on treats, especially things like scratch. Sorry for your loss.

 

[hispoptart]

I agree with the advice above, So sorry for your loss

 

[jessipanda]

Thanks everyone. I do still have her body, but I don't know where to start as far as sending her off to a lab for testing...

Neither of my hens are/were overweight so I know that didn't cause her death. They both weighed in at 4.5 pounds. I know being overweight increases their chances of dying young especially from the heat so I have always monitored their weight. Their run is a large chicken tractor that I move around the yard to ensure they always have fresh grass & bugs. I was free ranging them, but my remaining girl went to a neighboring yard a few years ago and they poisoned her. Took three days of hand feeding to keep her with us and another week before she was able to walk again. The vet told me to put her down, but she didn't want to die. She was still eating & drinking, but couldn't walk. So my daughter and I cared for her in the house until she was back to her goofy self. I built the chicken tractor to keep them safe from leaving again.

At least with that incident, we were able to catch it in time and save her. With this hen, she was perfectly normal in the morning and gone just 3 hours later. I'm just distraught and don't want to lose our remaining hen.

Other than sending the deceased one off to a lab, is there anything I can check with her or the remaining hen that I haven't thought of yet? Their poop is normal and the remaining hen is still active and acting normal, other than running around clucking at me like crazy from what I can only assume is confusion about the loss of her sister.

 

[hispoptart]

Where are you located at? That will help someone find your state lab. Keep her body refrigerated not frozen. If the lab is close enough you can drive her there or you may have to mail it. Once you find your lab then I am sure they can explain how to do it.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here is a list of state poultry labs and vets. Call them tomorrow, and ask how to ship a bird overnight or deliver it to them personally. Many can send a Fedex label where you just send the body and they charge for the shipping at the lab.
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm