my dead hen looks like she exploded =-(

[Julielle500]

i went into the coop to check on my hens and found one of my buff orphington girls dead. She looks like she exploded. her head was laying in a pool of black foamy stuff coming from her nostrils and beak. There was blood on her abdomen and her vent looks like it had blown out and was covered in a diarrhea looking mess. she smelled horrible. She was cold and limp. I'm heartbroken as she was one of my original girls when I started keeping hens about four years ago. The rest of the girls seem okay but I am not sure what I should be watching for to keep this from happening again.

 

[bobthebunny]

I am very sorry for your loss

But did she do anything different before she died anything did she eat the same amount did they have plenty of water? She may have had a very big egg that just didn't do something right she could have had some killer chicken dieses or something.

 

[Kylling]

Yikes, this doesn't sound like a pretty sight at all. I'd ask for pictures, but I'd rather not, haha.

Like bobthebunny asked, what was she doing the night before she died? I've never heard of a chicken passing in such an unusual way before. I wish you luck.

 

[Julielle500]

She was out in the yard - in an enclosed area that they go in all the time when I let them out of their fully enclosed pen. The outer pen has an apple tree, peach tree and a pomegranite tree. They can also reach my grapes through the fence but other than that there was nothing that they normally aren't around. Plenty of water... None of the other hens had an issue. Someone mentioned maybe cancer... but I don't understand why she would explode like that. I have heard of prolapsed vent before but have never seen it so I don't know. I'm at a loss.