My first death

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Im very sorry about your pullet and the shock of discovering her dead when she seemed perfectly healthy the day before. In addition to heatstroke and heart attack as mentioned by @TillyPeeps , a common cause of sudden death in chickens is fatty liver disease. (Medical name fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome.) It kills suddenly and with no warning, and is sadly common in layer hens that eat too many carbs in proportion to their regular feed. Here is an article that explains fatty liver disease.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...e/fatty-liver-hemorrhagic-syndrome-in-poultry
HHh 

Here is a thread where a hen was officially necropsied, and the cause of death was fatty liver disease. Follow the links within the thread because they contain considerable additional information.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fatty-liver-disease.1578234/

 

[sammi_lynn12]

Im very sorry about your pullet and the shock of discovering her dead when she seemed perfectly healthy the day before. In addition to heatstroke and heart attack as mentioned by @TillyPeeps , a common cause of sudden death in chickens is fatty liver disease. (Medical name fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome.) It kills suddenly and with no warning, and is sadly common in layer hens that eat too many carbs in proportion to their regular feed. Here is an article that explains fatty liver disease.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...e/fatty-liver-hemorrhagic-syndrome-in-poultry
HHh 

Here is a thread where a hen was officially necropsied, and the cause of death was fatty liver disease. Follow the links within the thread because they contain considerable additional information.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fatty-liver-disease.1578234/

I wonder if I need to start monitoring feed intake. I leave food out 24/7. Like I said, they fly and run around free ranging and climb on the hay, etc so I wouldn't think they are overweight but maybe they are...

I may try doing morning and night feedings instead of allowing them access to food 24/7. It can't hurt.

 

[HennyPenny2019]

I walked out to the coop this morning to find one of my barred rocks dead. It looked like she was asleep on the roosting bar and just fell right off and died.

She was totally fine yesterday. I sat out with them for about two hours when they were free ranging and she was acting completely normal. I didn't notice any sort of sluggishness or anything like that with any of the girls. I gave them some kitchen scraps and she was running all over getting pieces I was tossing out, acting just fine. So, I am at a loss as to what happened and I am worried about my other hens. Any idea? Should I treat the whole flock with anything as a prevention in case she was sick? I just couldn't believe it when I walked out there, I had no reason to believe she was sick in any way so it was a shock.

 

[sammi_lynn12]

Im very sorry about your pullet and the shock of discovering her dead when she seemed perfectly healthy the day before. In addition to heatstroke and heart attack as mentioned by @TillyPeeps , a common cause of sudden death in chickens is fatty liver disease. (Medical name fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome.) It kills suddenly and with no warning, and is sadly common in layer hens that eat too many carbs in proportion to their regular feed. Here is an article that explains fatty liver disease.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...e/fatty-liver-hemorrhagic-syndrome-in-poultry
HHh 

Here is a thread where a hen was officially necropsied, and the cause of death was fatty liver disease. Follow the links within the thread because they contain considerable additional information.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fatty-liver-disease.1578234/

I feed Kalmbach and have their feeder full 24/7, as the feeding directions say to free feed. How much would I feed daily for 9 laying hens? AM & PM feedings.

 

[FunClucks]

I wonder if I need to start monitoring feed intake. I leave food out 24/7. Like I said, they fly and run around free ranging and climb on the hay, etc so I wouldn't think they are overweight but maybe they are...

I may try doing morning and night feedings instead of allowing them access to food 24/7. It can't hurt.

If you're feeding commercial chicken feed, and not a lot of treats, fatty liver disease is much less likely. I don't think it's necessary to restrict their feed, but you can if you want to. Trial and error may be the best way to figure out how much you want to feed them.

It's usually not the commercial chicken feed that is the issue, but over-feeding of scratch and everything else, especially high-fat treats like mealworms, etc. Some chickens are predisposed to this, and will have an issue, while others on the same diet won't.

She could have eaten something while free ranging that didn't agree with her. She could just have had a genetic defect/anomaly that finally decided to make itself known.

If there were no signs anything was wrong or off with her, an autopsy is the best way to tell what actually happened. If it happens again, refrigerate the bird and sent it to your state lab.

https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

I had a chicken die from Sudden Chicken Death. We didn't do an autopsy because she'd laid a half-size egg the day before (no other symptoms), so we assumed it was probably reproductive system related, or maybe she got ahold of something she shouldn't. No other birds in the coop were affected or had issues after that. Sometimes they die unexpectedly and there's nothing you could have done.

Sorry you lost your chicken.

 

[sammi_lynn12]

If you're feeding commercial chicken feed, and not a lot of treats, fatty liver disease is much less likely. I don't think it's necessary to restrict their feed, but you can if you want to. Trial and error may be the best way to figure out how much you want to feed them.

It's usually not the commercial chicken feed that is the issue, but over-feeding of scratch and everything else, especially high-fat treats like mealworms, etc. Some chickens are predisposed to this, and will have an issue, while others on the same diet won't.

She could have eaten something while free ranging that didn't agree with her. She could just have had a genetic defect/anomaly that finally decided to make itself known.

If there were no signs anything was wrong or off with her, an autopsy is the best way to tell what actually happened. If it happens again, refrigerate the bird and sent it to your state lab.

https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

I had a chicken die from Sudden Chicken Death. We didn't do an autopsy because she'd laid a half-size egg the day before (no other symptoms), so we assumed it was probably reproductive system related, or maybe she got ahold of something she shouldn't. No other birds in the coop were affected or had issues after that. Sometimes they die unexpectedly and there's nothing you could have done.

Sorry you lost your chicken.

I feed Kalmbach organic layer feed and have always just left it out for them, this if my first death and I haven't seen any sort of health issues with any of them. So maybe I should just take it away when I run home for lunch and then give it back to them at evening time for a few hours. I have noticed they aren't really going through feed quick though because they free range daily so I really don't think it is because they are overweight but I am going to take it away and give them a couple hour break from having food access and hopefully that helps if that's what it was. Poor girl. I just feel bad for her and feel bad for the rest of the girls who had to see her like that in the morning.

They do get treats but not daily. Basically once or twice a week and it is a combination of veggies, bread, lunch meat, etc that I have collected throughout the week. So maybe every saturday and sunday they get treats. And it isn't a ton as it is just my boyfriend and I so we don't have a ton of food waste as it is. And I only get mealworms during the winter time to help with heat, especially since they free range and they have been catching beetles like crazy this summer.

 

[FunClucks]

I feed Kalmbach organic layer feed and have always just left it out for them, this if my first death and I haven't seen any sort of health issues with any of them. So maybe I should just take it away when I run home for lunch and then give it back to them at evening time for a few hours. I have noticed they aren't really going through feed quick though because they free ranger daily so I really don't think it is because they are overweight but I am going to take it away and give them a couple hour break from having food access and hopefully that helps if that's what it was. Poor girl. I just feel bad for her and feel bad for the rest of the girls who had to see her like that in the morning.

They do get treats but not daily. Basically once or twice a week and it is a combination of veggies, bread, lunch meat, etc that I have collected throughout the week. So maybe every saturday and sunday they get treats. And it isn't a ton as it is just my boyfriend and I so we don't have a ton of food waste as it is. And I only get mealworms during the winter time to help with heat, especially since they free range and they have been catching beetles like crazy this week.

Try not to feel guilty. You gave her the best possible life and she enjoyed it. Her life was awesome!

Chickens are amazingly resilient, you will probably be more upset about the loss of their flockmate than they will.

I'll let those more knowledgeable than me comment on your feeding routine.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Kalmbach is considered to be an excellent feed, and their feeding regimen you describe has no red flags that would cause fatty liver disease. I see no reason to restrict their feed, especially since they free-range. Chickens tend to over-eat treats including corn if offered free-choice or too frequently, but are very good at not over-eating regular feed. I mentioned fatty liver disease as a common cause of sudden death, but that doesn't mean that's what caused the death of your pullet. If you want to, you could send her body to your state lab for a necropsy, and they could identify the cause of death. Alternatively, a home necropsy would likely identify if cause of death is fatty liver disease, since the change in liver appearance is obvious. There's no need to do either of the above unless you want to know; but if another flock member dies suddenly, having an official necropsy done would be a good idea. You may never see this happen again, at least not in the near-term, so don't worry and enjoy your remaining flock members.

 

[sammi_lynn12]

Kalmbach is considered to be an excellent feed, and their feeding regimen you describe has no red flags that would cause fatty liver disease. I see no reason to restrict their feed, especially since they free-range. Chickens tend to over-eat treats including corn if offered free-choice or too frequently, but are very good at not over-eating regular feed. I mentioned fatty liver disease as a common cause of sudden death, but that doesn't mean that's what caused the death of your pullet. If you want to, you could send her body to your state lab for a necropsy, and they could identify the cause of death. Alternatively, a home necropsy would likely identify if cause of death is fatty liver disease, since the change in liver appearance is obvious. There's no need to do either of the above unless you want to know; but if another flock member dies suddenly, having an official necropsy done would be a good idea. You may never see this happen again, at least not in the near-term, so don't worry and enjoy your remaining flock members.

Thank you! I am going to try not to worry too much about it. I have already buried her so if this happens again in the near future, I will send it in to see what happened so I can have an idea on what is going on. For now, I will treat it as some sort of random act.

Only ten months old, she survived Northern Indiana -50 degree with wind chill weather (50-60mph winds) for four days, has been doing just fine in 90-100 degree humid heat, and on the coolest most comfortable day we've had in three weeks she passes away. Such a shame. This is the part of chicken owning that I will have to get use to. I have always had horses, dogs, goats, and cats. I am not use to short life spans and random deaths yet.