One of our girls found dead... need advice from someone who knows more than we do.

[aoxa]

Sure there are endless possibilities but what good will a necropsy do? Unless she was showing signs of illness, why bother? Stress induced heart attacks can happen at any age, more so because the OP suspected that she may have been being picked on.  Wasting money on a postmortem is foolish seeing that there was no sign of illness. I suppose there are markers that are present in their blood like humans to say if you had a heart attack but knowing that doesn't bring them back. I guess if you got money to burn to find out that the chicken had something that was totally unpreventable go for it I guess. Just can't un-ring a bell, sorry. Can only imagine what it costs to do a necropsy. If the flock was dying off would be a good reason but that's not what is going on so.

Here they do necropsies for free.

Heat stress in September? Likely in July and early August - and there were a lot that died this year that I've read about from heat stress, but the owners knew it was heat stress. The OP didn't mention it.

I just said don't write it off as a heart attack. I never suggested going and spending a fortune on a necropsy. If passing away for no reason with no blood or damage, I would think it would be egg binding before a heart attack.

 

[duckinnut]

Here they do necropsies for free.
Heat stress in September? Likely in July and early August - and there were a lot that died this year that I've read about from heat stress, but the owners knew it was heat stress. The OP didn't mention it.
I just said don't write it off as a heart attack. I never suggested going and spending a fortune on a necropsy. If passing away for no reason with no blood or damage, I would think it would be egg binding before a heart attack.

Never said it was heat stress. Stress comes in many ways. Being tortured or even being picked on from flock mates can induce stress as well as does molting being transported or you name it.. Not saying it was a stress related heart attack but it was highly likely. Egg bound chickens tend to act differently from their normal behavior or any malady that may effect behavior. According to the OP she suspects she was getting picked on and was acting her normal self. Given the facts presented one would conclude it is all likely a heart attack. Personally I have had rooster just up in die in front of my eyes at only just over a year old. I was trying to catch an escaped hen and he was flipping out to that fact. Crowing one minute dead on the ground next all with perfectly normal behavior prior to that event. Granted there are many things chickens can die from but sudden death in healthy birds the cause will be hard to determine versus a bird that is sick prior to death.

 

[aoxa]

Never said it was heat stress. Stress comes in many ways. Being tortured  or even being picked on from flock mates can induce stress as well as does molting being transported or you name it.. Not saying it was  a stress related heart attack but it was highly likely. Egg bound chickens tend to act differently from their normal behavior or any malady that may effect behavior. According to the OP she suspects she was getting picked on and was acting her normal self. Given the facts presented one would conclude it is all likely a heart attack. Personally I have had rooster just up in die in front of my eyes at only just over a year old. I was trying to catch an escaped hen and he was flipping out to that fact. Crowing one minute dead on the ground next all with perfectly normal behavior prior to that event. Granted there are many things chickens can die from but sudden death in healthy birds the cause will be hard to determine versus a bird that is sick prior to death.

I would think the picking would have had to be pretty bad to induce a heart attack.

Kind of wish Speckledhen would weigh in on this. There are many illnesses that don't present as symptoms prior to death. There are exploitation's. You have to know your chickens very well to know if the littlest thing is off. Something as simple as sleeping on the roost during the day could be a sign of something off.

http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page11.htm

You shouldn't have losses after 2 weeks that are unexplainable. If you do, you've probably got an upper respiratory fungal infection.