I will start by saying there were 9 but now there are 8...I went outside this morning and fed at 7 as usual..my wife called at noon and said a 1 1/2 y/o turken hen was feet up in the coop...I asked a few friends around town that raise birds and got a coupla interesting theories...when I checked her at 2pm after work, her crop was not impacted..very soft...no noticeable egg lumps in her belly but it was firm...when I picked her up water came out of her mouth and when I pressed her belly i could hear gurgling and air releasing from her cloacal opening...no bad smells thank goodness...she ruled the roost and was mean as heck to her sister and my other 7 birds...a coupla folks said maybe heat stroke..it was 85 here today but has been 90-100 in the last month here...the guy at the feed store said 80 can kill them if conditions are right/wrong depending on how you look at it...another person asked about the water...i use 2 stainless steel restaurant line pans..no galvanized metal...I usually hose them out really good and swoosh algae and food/residue out with my hand and give them fresh water almost every day, including this morning...I fed medicated food to my Easter 2014 flock as chicks and they got killed by stray dogs a montha nd a half ago...got all new birds cept for a Delaware named Lucky that survived the attack...2 turkens, now 1...a red sex link and a black sex link...2 orps, an Australorpe , an Americauna and the Delaware...should I get antibiotic drops for water...i took out the pans and hooked up a 5 cup drip self waterer...thoughts and opinions are welcome....and thx in advance....Billy in Memphis Tn
how big is the coop? are they crowded? do they have shade? maybe something got in the coop and scared them to the point that they piled on top of each other and got heat stroke? A disease, parasite, vitamin deficiency should not kill that fast. you would see her getting sick. Maybe a fowl can die suddenly: heart attack, aortic rupture, GI rupture from foreign body? Once I found a 6' rat snake in my coop who already had 3 5 week old chicks in his belly. the others were huddled pretty tight together. He was still there cause he was too FAT to get back out. Could a snake have gotten in?