My first chicken died today

[kritty]

Hi all,

First time poster, long time lurker. I hate that my first post is this situation.

One of my girls died today. At night, I lock them in their coop and I let them out each morning. When I opened the door, 6 happy girls hopped out. Curious about the 7th, I went look and she was laying lethargically in the coop. We took her out and put her in a dog kennel we have. She was breathing normally but then had what appeared to be a small seizure or dying process and she died a short time later. We are devastated.

I have no idea what happened. Other than the seizure (or what seemed the seizure) she appeared fine. I didn’t see anything out of ordinary with her.

These are our first girls. They turned 16 weeks on Monday. The others appear completely normal. She is 1 of our 2 Americaunas.

I took a photo of her after we put her in the kennel. I have been looking real closely at the photo and it appears that she still had some baby feathers on her. Is that normal or no? Also her leg is out, but she was in the dying process when I took this photo, so not her normal pose. Trying to get ahead of the possibility of losing more of my girls, which we have become attached to and hoping it was something that just happened to this one girl.

Please if you have any advice I’d appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[kritty]

Let me also add, they are from McMurray hatchery so we had them all vaccinated when they were hatched. All of them were thriving until today.

I live in south Louisiana for reference. It's been hot, but they are in a covered area under a shady tree and it's been raining, so I really don't think it is heat related.

 

[RoyalChick]

Hi all,

First time poster, long time lurker. I hate that my first post is this situation.

One of my girls died today. At night, I lock them in their coop and I let them out each morning. When I opened the door, 6 happy girls hopped out. Curious about the 7th, I went look and she was laying lethargically in the coop. We took her out and put her in a dog kennel we have. She was breathing normally but then had what appeared to be a small seizure or dying process and she died a short time later. We are devastated.

I have no idea what happened. Other than the seizure (or what seemed the seizure) she appeared fine. I didn’t see anything out of ordinary with her.

These are our first girls. They turned 16 weeks on Monday. The others appear completely normal. She is 1 of our 2 Americaunas.

I took a photo of her after we put her in the kennel. I have been looking real closely at the photo and it appears that she still had some baby feathers on her. Is that normal or no? Also her leg is out, but she was in the dying process when I took this photo, so not her normal pose. Trying to get ahead of the possibility of losing more of my girls, which we have become attached to and hoping it was something that just happened to this one girl.

Please if you have any advice I’d appreciate it. Thanks.

So sorry for your loss.
I don’t have any ideas but I lost a few of mine over the last couple of weeks and I know how much it hurts. So I am just here to give you a hug.