One of our hens died yesterday

[Abriana]

I’m so sorry

 

[ErikaRI]

Yes, she was definitely the alpha! Our Polish tries to be a bully but Betsy kept her in line. The survivors seem to be okay, but they definitely were confused yesterday...

Oh poor Betsy!!
So very sorry for your loss @ErikaRI .
What a pretty girl. Those australorps have so much personality that when one “goes” their absence is EXTRA noticeable.

We lost one (14 month old australorp) in the same way earlier this year.
We cried for days.
The other girls didn’t seem to know what to do the next morning when it was time to come out of their coop. for days there was a hesitation and then finally they’d come out, but not until after much arguing and discussion and trading of positions.

 

[ErikaRI]

I’m trying to get a better picture of our other Australorp, Suzie, but she’s taking a dust bath and refuses to move.

One thing I did notice when we picked up Betsy, after she died, is that it seemed like there was a patch on her belly or maybe under a wing with no feathers. I’m surprised I didn’t notice it, so maybe they fell off while we were lifting her? But it seemed odd. I did notice a bunch of feathers in the middle of the yard a few days ago but assumed that a songbird had gotten killed.

Betsy definitely had a sort of protuberant chest, and it was more on one side. The diet and lifestyle don’t match what I’ve been reading about FLHS, but maybe she was just more disposed to it?

 

[ErikaRI]

Here we go, 2 more pix of our other australorp and one of our Wyandotte.

 

[staceyj]

She may have plucked them herself if she was flirting with becoming broody.

Australorps are among the breeds that are prone to it.

The bulge you’re describing is a very full crop.
I wonder if it was protuberant because it was “just” full, “extra full” because as an alpha she ate more than the others, sour, slow to empty or impacted or pendulous?

We did give our girls corn on the cob as a treat fairly frequently. Somehow I thought “fresh” wasn’t as junkfoodish.

 

[rebrascora]

I agree, their diet doesn't sound like was the problem and an impacted crop would not kill her suddenly without you noticing a problem. I am curious about the bald patch. The feathers do not just drop out with handling even after death, so that is odd and swollen abdomens often become bald usually due to irritation causing over preening or it can be rubbed bald on the roost. I am assuming you have disposed of her body and you are just recalling that there was a bald patch somewhere since you seem to be a bit vague about the location of it. Generally you would notice if she was broody or even pre broody and it is their breast they pluck for that, so I doubt that would be the cause of it.
From the photos of the others, there is nothing obviously untoward.

 

[ErikaRI]

I was sort of freaked out by the whole thing so didn't look too closely or really identify the area of the bald spot. It may be that she'd been rubbing it in the roost and I hadn't noticed. They also tend to run themselves right against the wire of the run when they want out, so that probably was loosening things It'd been a while since I'd picked her up, so it's hard to know. Lesson to me to pick them up and examine them more often, I guess.

Yes, we still have the body, but it's wrapped up pretty tightly and since the temp hasn't dropped below 70 I'm not about unwrap it to examine more closely. Unfortunately we don't have a dump in town--I'll have to wait until trash day, Thursday! I didn't really think about doing a necropsy or I would have thrown it in the freezer...

I agree, their diet doesn't sound like was the problem and an impacted crop would not kill her suddenly without you noticing a problem. I am curious about the bald patch. The feathers do not just drop out with handling even after death, so that is odd and swollen abdomens often become bald usually due to irritation causing over preening or it can be rubbed bald on the roost. I am assuming you have disposed of her body and you are just recalling that there was a bald patch somewhere since you seem to be a bit vague about the location of it. Generally you would notice if she was broody or even pre broody and it is their breast they pluck for that, so I doubt that would be the cause of it.
From the photos of the others, there is nothing obviously untoward.

 

[rebrascora]

I didn't really think about doing a necropsy or I would have thrown it in the freezer...

It can be really interesting if you can remove yourself from the emotional upset and even without medical training you can surprisingly often pinpoint the cause of death, especially if you have processed a few chickens for meat and have an idea of what a healthy bird's organs should look like. There are quite a few of us here on the forum that do this when a chicken dies unexpectedly and some of us have had more than our fair share of experience for various reasons (viruses, reproductive disorders etc) and we take photos and share them and discuss our findings. Just thought I would mention it for future reference, since you will encounter almost certainly encounter other chicken deaths at some stage.

As regards examining them, I find it quite easy to do an inspection of each bird whilst they are roosting on a night..... my birds do not like being handled so it saves me and them the stress of trying to chase them down during the day!

 

[Kiki]

Never freeze dead birds...refrigerate only.

 

[ellenscoop]

Have you tried using the chicken symptom checker tool? It might help you understand what could have caused it.