This morning I found one of my Welsummers (almost a year old) sitting on the coop floor. I'm pretty sure she exited the coop with the others first thing when I opened up their back door because it was empty except for one of my bantams, and a few minutes later I saw her sitting there.
The hen seemed perfectly alert but she couldn't really walk. I noticed her toes were kind of bent up, if that makes any sense. Not curled or clenched, but her toes weren't straight or relaxed. There was some whitish stuff around her mouth like if a person goes too long without water, that went away after she drank. She looked at food when I offered it to her but didn't try to eat it. After I separated her she had a little bit of greenish-yellow diarrhea and mostly just sat where I left her. She was panting a lot, wheezing a little, nothing else seemed amiss aside from a little comb paleness when I examined her. I left her alone for a few hours thinking she somehow ate something poisonous and needed to get it out of her system, when I came back she had passed away. It looked like she threw up the water I'd given her earlier. Her comb and face looked a little bluish/purplish and I'm guessing she choked on her vomit. So I don't know if whatever made her sick is actually what killed her.
I'm still thinking she ate something poisonous since so far all of the other chickens are fine, but what are the other likely possibilities? I haven't had an adult chicken die of disease in years.
The hen seemed perfectly alert but she couldn't really walk. I noticed her toes were kind of bent up, if that makes any sense. Not curled or clenched, but her toes weren't straight or relaxed. There was some whitish stuff around her mouth like if a person goes too long without water, that went away after she drank. She looked at food when I offered it to her but didn't try to eat it. After I separated her she had a little bit of greenish-yellow diarrhea and mostly just sat where I left her. She was panting a lot, wheezing a little, nothing else seemed amiss aside from a little comb paleness when I examined her. I left her alone for a few hours thinking she somehow ate something poisonous and needed to get it out of her system, when I came back she had passed away. It looked like she threw up the water I'd given her earlier. Her comb and face looked a little bluish/purplish and I'm guessing she choked on her vomit. So I don't know if whatever made her sick is actually what killed her.
I'm still thinking she ate something poisonous since so far all of the other chickens are fine, but what are the other likely possibilities? I haven't had an adult chicken die of disease in years.
