Mysterious Death

[catholder]

One of my hens passed away and we have absolutely no idea why.
We got our chickens a year ago - our first chickens.
We feed our hens in the morning any scraps that we have, pellets, scratch and sunflower seeds - she was there with everyone else eating up like little pigs. We noticed nothing wrong with her and the following morning she was just outside the coop door dead. Just like that - so we butchered her to see what was up and her crop was full of the food I had fed her the morning before - and inside her gizzard we found 2 screws. (Gizzards are fascinating!) Now we read that finding interesting things in the gizzard was normal but 2 screws and a full crop! Nothing else seemed out of place - there was an egg ready to be laid but didn't look stuck. No injuries, wounds or nothing!
Anyone know why they will just drop dead like that?
Not too sure about impacted crop and how long it takes the food to move out of the crop - anyone?

 

[annie3001]

first

sorry for your hen loss.
second: i really couldnt be any help on what happend and why she passed. thats amazing she ate 2 screws, wonder if that had something to do with her. was her poop normal?

again sorry

 

[Terri O]

So she was OUTSIDE the coop door in the morning? Does that mean she was out all night? I think the crop should empty out each day so it should be empty in themorning. It sounds like maybe she was impacted if you found food from the previous morning still there...I wouldnt think that would have killed her that quickly however. Weird about the screws...maybe that had something to do with it? (zinc poisoning?) Terri O

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

if the gizzard was full of the screws the crop can't empty till the gizzard can take more food
yes the screws could have bad effect on the chickens health

 

[catholder]

Is an impacted crop common?
What are the signs?
We did not notice anything wrong with her - behavior.
She was outside the coop door but not shut out - my hens are the first to roost every night so she must have passed away before the night came.
The screws were 1/2 inch screws just sitting there waiting to do their job - they were not zinc screws.
Weird the way some things just happen...
Thanks for your responses.

 

[DIMBY]

I wonder if the screws punctured something internally? This is a cautionary tale for those of us who are constantly fixing, adding or 'doing' something to our chicken arrays - make sure you pick up your nails, screws, whatever!

 

[catholder]

I have read that chickens like screws, nails, hard rubber stuff and things similar to that. But there was no punctures inside her gizzard or crop - we investigated pretty good because we were curious and concerned and we still are.

 

[theFox]

Quote:
I think the word like is a bit strong, it's more like chickens eat anything they can pick up and swallow.

If the birds gizzard was full of metal it isn't likely it could process its food. If you didn't also open up the rest of internal digestive organs you don't know if there were addition places that were plugged by metal or other things.

Your bird could have died do to an intestinal nick causing an infection.