First of all, welcome to the BYC forums
One of my Wyandotte’s just died. She was maybe 7 month old. She hadn’t laced an egg yet, is that weird?
From a Google search: "Wyandottes are pretty good layers but don't mature much earlier than most other breeds. You should expect them to lay anywhere from
18 to 22 weeks."
So, at about 28 weeks old, that is a little late. My Wyndotte started laying late, maybe at 24 weeks.
She was lethargic, no eating or drinking, not moving and eyes shut. Today a murky smelly liquid was coming out of her beak. I didn’t know if she was egg bound so I did a warm bath and tried to feel inside her but couldn’t. She also had been moving her head in and out like something was stuck in her throat. I checked for any kind of bugs on her and there were none. Over the last 3 years we’ve had a total of 4 die in a very similar way.
How many chickens do you have, or have you had over 3 years? I would expect some loss, but you seem to indicate that losing 4 birds over 3 years was unexpected.
What are your chickens eating? Is it possible something is actually getting stuck in her throat? I have heard that some chickens can gorge themselves on long grass and develop impacted crops. I feed my chickens grass clippings all spring/summer/early fall from lawn mowing, but have yet to have any problems.
I’ve even taken one to a vet and they had no diagnosis.
Yeah, some people here on BYC forums disagree with me because I always say I would not bring any of my chickens to our vet. But our vets don't know anything about chickens, so you would get a big vet bill for nada. Like I said, I can buy 20 healthy chicks for the price of one visit to the vet with a sick chicken. So I do what I can with my flock and try to treat them on my own.
I treat my small backyard flock as something between livestock and pets. I only have 10 chickens, so I know each hen pretty well. On the other hand, I don't name my chickens because I don't want to think of them as pets. In fact, my strategy, was to order 10 chicks hoping that 6 survive the winter. So I have planned for loss, but do my best to care for my girls and keep them all happy and healthy.