Sudden death in otherwise healthy chicken?

[campbell]

Hi all,
I am reposting a question I put in introductions yesterday - I think this is a better spot. I lost a 2 year old RI Red hen yesterday from unknown causes. She was my best layer. I let my chickens out to forage in the back yard all day, and the next morning she was dead in the nest box.
I've been trying to call local vets (no response until too late to necropsy), but the best info I got was from the feed store owner where I bought my chickens. He said that the most common cause of sudden death in an otherwise healthy hen was from being egg bound, which could be, because I don't think she'd been laying the last couple of days. I had just got in from out of town and my husband had been watching the chickens, so we aren't sure (he can't tell the eggs apart).
Another thing that supposedly can happen is that a hen can get hit on the back, say from a dog attack, and since the internal organs are up against the spine they can be easily injured that way. My five year old may have grabbed her roughly on the back when trying to catch her, according to his siblings, which may or may not be the case, never know.
The third thing the feed store guy said was that if a hen is turned upside down, sometimes they can aspirate digestive contents which can cause respiratory failure.
The thing that worries me is that when I examined her body, she had a lot of clear liquid draining from her nostrils. She hadn't been dead for more than an hour or two. I wonder if it was a respiratory infection. She wasn't coughing or sneezing or showing any other obvious symptoms, but she did start laying funny eggs a few weeks ago, some with wrinkles and others with bumps or calcium deposits on one end. I read online that that can be a sign of infectious bronchitis. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

I would go with the child roughly cstvhing the hen
it is not to be done with laying hens especially in hot weather

she would have had a heart attck and the fluid you seen was from the body's relaxing and giving way to expressing built up fluids
which helped to cause her death

with all that said
watch and see if any of the chickens get the sneezes and coughing and then you will know

you could keep the children from chasing the birds and feed some wet mash probiotic

now the important thing to help ward off any infection is good gut flora

natural probiotic recipe is is:
1/2 qt of dry crumbles
3/4 QT of milk, sweet, sour, or buttermilk or a mixture of all or some
1/4 cup of non flavored yoguart ( no artificial sweetmer)
mix good
YOU CAN ADD LAST ON TOP OF WET MASH
1/4 CUP OF APPLE SAUCE AS THEY WILL EAT THAT GOOD

NOW THE IMPORTANT INGRIEDIENT FOR EACH CHICKEN FED
and add 1- 400 mg of Vit E by cutting the end off the vit E capsule for each chick fed this wet mash
putting it in the wet mash
this for each chicken your feeding
so for each chicken use 2 tbsp of mixture and 1-400 mg of Vit E

twice a day for them till the manure is solid

and feed each chicken
2 tbsp full of the wet mash probiotic and what they will clean up in 20-30 minutes
then clean wet feeders and restock dry crumbles

do this once a day for a week

then quit the Vit E make just the wet mash probiotic
then once a week for life

All the while after mdicating the birds use ACV IN THE WATER
do not use ACV with medication


2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar per gallon of the chicken water so their gut flora wil be regulated they should have this at least 3-5 days a week
then three days a week after they are over coccidiosis

the vit's are neccessary to clean up the damaged gut problems
email me any questions so you are not confused

 

[Country4ever]

Sorry for your loss!
Was her abdomen distended at all? Chickens can go so fast.
Without a necropsy it would be hard to know for sure. I've had them die from falling off the roost, or slamming into a wall when frightened.
You might not find any answers, which I know is frustrating, but that's the way it goes. She also may have had some sort of cancer.
Again, sorry you lost her.

 

[Country4ever]

Glenda........a couple questions for you:
Do you ever worry about the high content of sodium in buttermilk?
I've heard that you shouldn't put vinegar in a metal watering can, as it interacts with the metals and creates something possibly toxic. Have you heard that?

 

[vaile1]

Hi everyone:
We just lost a Lackenfelder hen who was just barely 1.5 yrs old....She had no signs of being ill what so ever - was eating, drinking, looked very healthy & was acting normal...came home the other day & she was laying on her side in the coop with labored breathing & would not get up, her crown was cool feeling, a bit disclored & "limped" over...she barely clucked when I picked her up & was very limp - tried giving her water & she wouldn't/couldn't drink - spit up a little clear liquid...I then layed her back down in the coop, a few seconds later she looked like she had a couple of convulsions & just died ....very sad & puzzled as to what may have happened....We have 6 chickens left & all seem to be thriving...ALL of them get fresh water daily....excellent laying mash & have a very large run attached to their coop...we clean it out every weekend with pine bedding & just a little straw with some straw in the nesting boxes...Hoping someone can give me some ideas on what may have happened?????? No heart attack with the symptoms she had not sure if she was egg bound or not - I don't know if being egg bound could have caused this or what the symptoms are for that other than they stop laying eggs...I don't thnk she had layed any that day or the day before.........Just would like to know what could have happened......Can any share their thoughts on the possibilities???? Thanks so much for any feed back!!

 

[duckkabob]

Hi All.
kinda had the same thing happen with 2 of my Cornish rocks happy running around funy as all get out watching the white basketballs waddle around.
Thought at first it was because they were 2 fat dident have the heart to butcher them see story in introductions if need a good laugh.
on first one found dead beak in ground legs straight out behind , they were just starting to lay no eggs yet so decided to have a look see if can find anything, when opened the abdomen large amount of brownish fluid came out but no sign of any eggs no internal bleeding nothing, when removed the intestines and other viscera thing struck me hardest was the size of the liver it was huge almost as big as my hand, and from some where not sure from the lower gut or anus cavity I removed a 6 inch long 1inch diameter white grannie looking thing that resembled a tree root I still have no idea what it was.
the second one died about a day later this one on its back I dident get to it in time to have a look, but both went from helth,overweight pets to dead my third one is cripple and doing fine she developed a limp about the time the first died and got so bad I had to keep her clean of poop and move her around by hand.
doing pretty good now moves around but not as active as other chickens has difficulty walking but getting better. and gives me an egg about every 3 days.
she is a happy chicken and loves to be petted and hand fed .Is there a chicken sudden death syndrome??

 

[Duskland]

Hi all,

I have had a bizarre similar experience of sudden death in a few of my chickens. I had 4 Wyandotte hen chicks that I moved yesterday to a new cage, with new clean bedding, new clean food, and fresh water. The cage was cleaned, rinsed thoroughly, and set up with a heat lamp above. I live in Virginia where our summers are getting warm, but as they were only 4 weeks old I was told to keep light on. They had a chance to avoid the heat lamp, but when I came home this evening to check on them, 3 of the 4 had perished. They do not seem to have any parasites, food is new and doesn't seem mouldy. I recently switched from non-antibiotics Southern States food to non-medicated Tractor Supply food. I used large pine shavings that are dust free to bed them on. Kind of baffled at this. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Living the Simple Life]

We have had two ISA browns die in four days. First on Saturday. She was looking a little lethargic on Friday, but nothing we could really pinpoint. On Saturday, we caught her to check to see if she was egg bound. While I have no experience detecting this, I didn't find anything that would lead me to think that was the problem. DS was holding her, she expelled a large white poop all over him, convulsed and died. Today, one of the hens was sitting with the broody guinea hens (two are co-brooding). I thought maybe she was going broody as well, but when the kids went to check, she was also dead. These were healthy hens, 1yo, good layers who were fine until Friday and today respectively. No wheezing, discharge, bloody poop. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary yet within 24 hours they are dead. Any suggestions of where to start? They don't match they symptoms of anything I am finding.

 

[dkellyp]

i have a flock of mixed brown egg layers that are about a year old. they have been very healthy but in the last few weeks we have lost 4 perfectly healthy excellent layers to what i can only call unexplained sudden death. i have found them laying on their sides. it seems to be the largest and healthiest of the bunch that are succumbing to this! one had an egg in her vent, fully formed when she died but did not seem bound-- just died mid laying! one of them that was discovered later had some signs of pecking but it seemed post mortem. the others did not have a mark on them! they are fed an organic grain mixture a layer supplement for omega 3 eggs and have access to their high (8 foot) fenced yard where i bring them vegetable trimmings and weeds but i am extremely careful about what plants i give them. and this is nothing new. i am mystified. we have had a very cool and wet summer but i would think that would mean less stress. any thoughts?

 

[Anniebee1]

I checked my chickens today, I have 6, and found my aracauna splayed out on the coop floor dead. Yesterday she was running around the fenced lawn with her sisters, clucking and pecking and acting normal. She was a good healthy weight. She had absolutely no oral or nasal drainage and her eyes were very clear. It looked as though she fell over frontwards and died. Judy was just 2 years old. After reading these entries I would have to say she died from being egg bound. She was such a sweetie. I wish I had known but with them loose in summer sometimes we miss an egg or two.