Sudden chicken death

[anitachicken]

We lost our beautiful Americans 5 month old. She was fine last night when I locked the 5 hens in their house for the night. They free range at lest a few hours everyday. And have a great coop and house when they aren't loose. She was usually the 2 and out in the AM. I thought she was laying an egg then I saw her laying under their roosting bar. Dead. No visible signs, no health problems ? The other girls (2 RIR and 2plymouth rock whites) are fine???? They are obviously distressed over the loss of SheRa. She was the leader.

 

[Mychicagoladies]

I lost one yesterday they were all fine saturday and i last checked them when i locked up the coop that night then when i went to check eggs sunday at noon one was in the nest box where she likes to sleep and she was gone. The strange thing is that her neck looked like someone had pushed it onto the 2x4 that keeps the eggs from falling out, and her body also looked like it was pressed down. I wonder if they were piled on her and suffocated her. I looked for wounds or anything that could give me a clue what hoppened, but she just looked like someone sat on her.

 

[Faybeau]

Just had a similar experience with one of 6 chickens (now down to 5). All appeared to be totally healthy and happy when they went in to roost. In the morning, when I went to let them loose, one of my Buff’s appeared to have just fallen DEAD off the roost during the night; no symptoms, no issues! This morning I was afraid to go out to release The Girls, worried I'd find another one dead. So Far, So Good!
They all are fed the same extra rations (lettuces, pasta, rice, fruits), along with Pellets & occasional Scratch, without consequence. They are often “free range” on our 5 acre property and have never ventured to the neighbors. their nesting and coop straw is constantly cleaned out/replaced. All the chickens, including the one that suddenly died, seemed to be producing daily, so I don't believe it this hen was suffering from a ‘bound-egg’ issue (6 hens, 6 eggs daily).
My most recent thought is that there might have been something toxic THIS hen got into while roaming free earlier in the day. Three thoughts come to mind:
1) Over the past several years, I have composted avocados, including the pits; the last spreading of compost in the vegetable garden was last summer. As I find these pits, I collect and move them to the garbage can. Is it possible that the hen found one of these old pits and nibbled at the pit skin thus poisoning herself with Pesin?? I am wondering if anyone knows if, with time, the Pesin leaches from the brown-skin of the Avocado Pit, or does it remain toxic indefinitely?
2) While I understand Chickens are pretty good at not eating toxic weeds or toxic mushrooms, I've noticed we have a new crop of wild mushrooms in the yard following the last rain. Has anyone caught their chickens nibbling at mushrooms that could be toxic?
3) Earlier this past week, we had our fruit trees sprayed with Copper Sulfate Dormant Spray. I've noticed (in my reading) that Copper Sulfate(in some form??) is used to treat both water & chicken feed; however, I'm wondering if exposure to the grass around the sprayed trees might have been toxic (what is used as a spray for trees may be a totally different form?). Of course, I wonder why only One chicken would have been affected and not all 6 of them, if this were the case?
In the meantime, I have them ALL on Lockdown in their Chicken Yard and am not allowing them to Free Range until I get some advice/more information. Needless to say they are quite spoiled and anxious to be turned loose (poor things).

 

[casportpony]

Look into necropsy, it's free in many states.

-kathy

 

[Philliph]

Hi
I live in New Zealand
We have kept chooks for 10 yrs and have 6 Plymouth Barred Rock hens and 2 new young Roosters
However today we arrived home to find both roosters dead in the garden and an older hen dead nearby.
At first I thought that a predator must be responsible but I had a good look at the birds and there wasn't a mark on any of them.
The two roosters were within 1 meter of each other and the hen was 5 meters off. The roosters had full crops and the hen had a empty crop with just fluid inside.
The roosters had cherry tomato, silver beet and lots of small black seeds that looked like slatters in their crops.
There was no sign of any stress or trauma at all, no foaming no death scramble.
All the birds had a flexed neck but Im unsure if this is unusual in a dead chook.
The birds are free range during the day and housed at night.
The obvious suspicion is poison but what.
The bird with empty crop and fluid suggests water but ll the birds drink from the same source.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your losses and welcome to BYC! You should look into having them necropsied.

-Kathy

 

[chickenlover247]

Thanks for your input. The trouble is they had no symptoms. The first death I thought "oh my, she had a heart attack or stroke" But when the second one died a week later it was too coincidental. Both birds were vigorous, there combs were bright red, they ate well and were active, no unusual stools. My main concern is that they died from poisoning but it would have to have been fast acting. (4-6 hours) They have a large backyard with plantings to roam in. I checked my recently introduced plants but they're non toxic and there was no evidence of nibbling. At one point I was worried that someone had thrown rat poison over the fence, but found no evidence of that either. I live in northern California and the local ag extension told me it would be very costly to autopsy. I guess I won't ever know what killed them. I just didn't want to put any new chickens in harm's way.

It may have been a Birth defect, my Chicken was 3 and she just died like yours, I talk to a 4-H Poultry Expert and she said it was most likely a Birth Defect.

 

[Sindylue]

I had 18 chicks they are two and a half weeks and three and a half weeks old. They are in a very large cardboard box with wood shavings, a red heat lamp organic chick feed and plenty of fresh water. I have to check several times a day because they keep scratching the wood shavings into the water. So today I had been out to check them and everything was good. The last time I checked one of the chicks was dead on its side. I keep checking and the rest seem OK but now I am afraid I will find another dead chick. This is our first go at having chickens and I have been reading on BYC all day trying to figure out what could be wrong. Maybe it's just that they are young ? It was one of the older biggest Buff Orpington. Any ideas ? Thank you

 

[casportpony]

I had 18 chicks they are two and a half weeks and three and a half weeks old. They are in a very large cardboard box with wood shavings, a red heat lamp organic chick feed and plenty of fresh water. I have to check several times a day because they keep scratching the wood shavings into the water. So today I had been out to check them and everything was good. The last time I checked one of the chicks was dead on its side. I keep checking and the rest seem OK but now I am afraid I will find another dead chick. This is our first go at having chickens and I have been reading on BYC all day trying to figure out what could be wrong. Maybe it's just that they are young ? It was one of the older biggest Buff Orpington. Any ideas ? Thank you

My best guess if they're warm enough, not too hot and being fed chick starter would be coccidiosis. You might want to start a new thread, you'll probably get more suggestions that way.

Treatment for coccidiosis is Corid or Amprol (amprolium). Dosing info here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/818879/updated-corid-and-amprol-amprolium-dosing

To start a new thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/threads/add/forumId/10

-Kathy

 

[kpertz]

I have lost 3 birds in a year...healthy one day and dead the next....no clue to what happened...they just dropped dead..I think my rooster froze due to the very cold winter...one other one died in the winter...one in the spring...healthy then gone.....sad