Mystery Deaths

[marymac]

How can a almost 2 yr old chicken be fine one day and dead the next? She was just acting normal the day before, I had them out and she does what the rest of them do, just peck and eat bugs, grass and what ever, then today she is inside her coop dead!! I checked her over and there was no sign of anything wrong, just dead. Do chickens get heart attacks? Don't most diseases present some type of warning?

 

[marymac]

Am I the only one this has ever happened to?

 

[Freebie]

No, it has happened to me also. Just this spring. I did not see any symptoms either. I just think sometimes there is something physically wrong, like their hearts or some other organ just did not develop right or something. sometimes, things just happen.

 

[Jaguaress]

From what is posted among these threads, yes, that can happen. The only way to know for sure what happened is to have her necropsied.

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[jjthink]

Yes, sadly, she could have had a heart attack. Did you notice if her comb was blue?. Maybe by the time you found her it was just very pale. I lost a beautiful, joyous, loving, funny, much loved hen Annie to a heart attack before her 2nd birthday. It was heart breaking. She loved life so.
I'm sorry.
JJ

 

[mcnamarm]

It happened to me this week. One of my Buff Orpingtons, found dead. No evidence of trauma. I've been watching the rest of the gals, but they seem fine. I just hope she went peacefully.

 

[Tsagirl]

OK this has happened to me when my girls were free ranging in our yard and I lost 4-5 birds. One moment they are alive and healthy and the next they die!! I finally look the yard over to see if they were eating like usuall. Welll...............found out there are mushrooms in my backyard and they had bites taken out of them!!! Shrooms are not good and if you read about them, they can cause instant death in Chickens. So, look over your backyard and take out the mushrooms.

Sorry that is all the advice I have. I hope it helps!

 

[marymac]

You know I never gave a thought to mushrooms!!!. You would think a chicken would know what is safe to eat, butI guess any thing is possible. Sometime we eat stuff we shouldn't too!!

 

[artechick]

We lost three full grown adult females and it's been raining a lot here in EA WA state. wondering if it's the weather, did they catch cold, or what? Hubster said it's because of the weather. the Coop is dry, but i lost three hens, the factor that they all shared was they had no tail feathers. could it be because they were under stress? run is big, chickens laying fine. what's up? maybe the damp rainy weather? please help!


same thing happened to me. the mitigating factor was these three hens might have been stressed out. maybe a heart attack. one never knows. one was walking around doing the 'death march' with one eye closed, and not eating. i separated her and she died overnight. the other two were large black chickens, i forget the breed. I will try and find out.