Hen seemed saved but then found dead over a week later

[K Roe]

I have a hen who suffered a broken wing awhile back. It never healed correctly so it just hung at her side but she just compensated for it. Last week I found her shivering on the ground on her back. It has been extremely cold here so I figured she was chilled, especially lacking the cover of one of her wings, so I slowly warmed her in our garage using a heat lamp. She was up the next morning happy as can be and I considered it a miracle. She ate, drank, clucked and as the cold snap continued I kept her indoors in a box with the comfort of the heat lamp. I planned to live her out when we warned back up to the mid fifties this coming week but found her dead this morning. The heat lamp didn’t fail. She was just talking to me last night and drinking and munching meal worms. What may have happened? I have now lost 3 of these big red hens this year. Each one suddenly. And also lost two bantams. The deaths are months apart but all surprising. Help! I feel like my chickens are systematically dying on me!

 

[Eggcessive]

I would save her body, and refrigerate it until I could contact the state vet or poultry lab for a necropsy. It will need to be taken or sent on ice packs in a foam cooler.

Mareks disease could be a possibility, since it can cause among many other symptoms, paralysis of one or both wings or legs.

 

[junebuggena]

Was the heat lamp bulb teflon coated?

 

[Rugbygainz]

The above poster could be onto something with mareks. How old is she tho? because I had a flock of red hens a while back and they all started to develop different issues after about a year and a half. They were the kind bred for laying on an industrial scale, those hens arnt always made to last. When I treated their symptoms they still died off.