My Polish hen died!

[Just Chicks]

This is my first year with back yard chickens. Going to be our first winter...all are under a year except my polish hen I adopted last spring..she was a year in Sept 2013...my hens are being fed organic and free range in our yard and have half a garage transformed into a coop...all seemed to be doing well even with this cold weather, none seemed to be doing much of a molt, only a few feathers here and there but eggs are less and that is ok, I'm not heating or lighting the coop...Penelope , my Polish hen, started molting, stopped laying eggs about 2 weeks ago, and the last week had been acting lethargic, not perching at night, not eating etc so I thought it was due to the molt, how er yesterday, she seemed much worse and did not go outside just sat there..when picked up she would give big breathy weese therein quiet for a bit then again...so we thought maybe too cols so brought her inside...this morning we found her dead...I am so sad as I lost one to drowning in pool not long ago..def not a good experience for a first trimmer! Now what could have been wrong? Anyone have ideas? Will my other birds get sick?

 

[Peplers chicks]

Ouch, don't really have an answer, just keep your eyes on the other chicks for the same symptoms and act hastily if you see something, On the post about the drowned, I had a lot of back yard chickens a few years ago, and in the one run was my austrolops, here in S.A. they are very expensive at that stage, before some clever blokes came and incubates a few hundred and made sure the price drops more than 75%, but anyway, I uses some bantams to breed the austrolops and tries to increase the austrolop folk, the bantams was running free in the goose yard, and there I got the same story, every morning gets austrolop babies in the water, scary and distraught

 

[cafarmgirl]

There are many possible things this could have been so I agree that about all you can do is watch your other birds closely. She may have had a respiratory disease in the past and the onset of cold weather brought on a relapse. Or it could have been something else entirely that is not a threat to the others. No way to know without a necropsy.

 

[Just Chicks]

Thank you for your relies and sorry for your loss too Pepiers..yes I will keep an eye closely on the others.

 

[Just Chicks]

Sorry, I mean Peplers

 

[realsis]

I'm so very sorry for the loss of your bird. Chickens can be very good at hiding illness until its too late. You have to look for clues as to what might have been the problem. If you did hear a wheeze my GUESS would be that she had a illness that was respitory in nature. I personally lost three birds to a respitory illness and the only symptom I ever saw was a wheeze .no mucus or cough or sneeze. I tried tube feeding and antibotics but with a virus I didn't get any response. Antibotics don't work on virus but they can prevent a secondary illness but with all my effort I still lost them. I would keep a sharp eye out on the other birds making sure they are not displaying any symptoms themselves. Its hard to say for certain what was the cause of her death as it could be so many things but because of the wheeze id guess it to be respitory . They only way to know for certain is to have her body tested. Then they can tell you exactly what she had. without testing it's just guessing. I'm very sorry you lost her and hope this helps some

 

[Peplers chicks]

Sorry, I mean Peplers

Hahahaha, no prob, be blessed

 

[Just Chicks]

Ty realsis, I will be crossing my fingers the others don't start showing symptoms...