Our first hen death - questions

[tkjjas]

Sorry, not quite sure where to post this.

We're pretty new to chicken ownership - got two chicks March 2009 and three chicks March 2010. No real issues until today when one of the 2yo hens died. She had been acting differently for a few weeks, but more sluggish than obviously sick. I doubt she's laid in several months either. When I let them out of their run to range the backyard, she walked out with the rest. About five minutes later, though, she started having convulsions and clucking that sounded like gobbling. She fell to the floor and had another couple sets of convulsions with gobbling with her neck at a very awkward angle to her body. Then she went rigid and it was obvious she was dead.

So that was kind of freaky and now I'm wondering if we need to know what caused her death. She was only 2yo, so this obviously wasn't old age. This probably sounds dumb, but I'm wondering about potential diseases and transfer to people since I have four young kids who also are in the backyard a lot. And there are the other chickens, too, do I need to quarantine them?

Thanks,
-Kay

 

[Tiramisu]

Im not sure what was wrong with your hen, sorry you lost one.

As for diseases from them to you, only Avian Influenza(sp) is the one that can be transferred.
Your hen sounds like it just had a seizure and died, could have been caused by a more common type of disease or just a nuerological issue.

 

[tkjjas]

Quote:
Thanks for the info. For some reason, I feel like I need to fumigate the house (which she hasn't been in since she was a chick) and the backyard (which, how in the world would I do that?) So I obviously need to chill.

-Kay

 

[dawg53]

Here's a list of diseases that are transmittable to humans.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps019
ETA: tkjjas...sounds like worms to me.

 

[TayFray!]

I had a chicken do the same thing, He ran out of the coop, then when i turned around he was laying on the ground thrassing and bobbing his head, then i went to look and he had died. I think he just had a seisure, but if yours was sick, maybe she was just in some kind of seisure trans! you know!

 

[tkjjas]

Quote:
Thanks for the link, though trying to read through it did give me the heebie-jeebies...

So, sorry, I'm totally clueless. If it was worms as you suspect, is there anything we need to do as follow-up with regard to the other chickens or our kids?

Thanks,
-Kay