Pullet died unexpectedly... post mortem?

[Godiva]

I have been out of town for a week and had my folks watching our chickens. Our first morning back (yesterday) I found one of my welsummer pullets dead on the floor. She was still warm under her body. What I am wondering is what I should look for in a post mortem. I was wondering if she was maybe egg bound and my folks didn't notice, or maybe laid internally.... what would that look like when I open her up? Shania was one of the roos favourites and was pretty worn - I had a hen saddle on her but there was nothing unusual with that. I could use a few pointers on what to look for to try and figure out what happened to her. She was not yet a year old.... I hate not knowing Grrrrrr! I know that chickens die but I tend to take it rather personally as I try to take the best possible care of our birds.

Thanks for any advice folks!

 

[speckledhen]

If she was still laying, probably isn't internal laying. Here are some links that helped me alot with my necropsies. The second link is wonderful.

http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/rojo1/postmort.html

This one is part of the huge book "Disease of Poultry" online. You can do a search and view some pages, but cannot copy the excerpts. It is full of spectacular information and pictures of what organs look like with certain diseases. I think the book is about $500 if you buy it-yikes!

http://books.google.com/books?id=oB...X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA639,M1