Sudden death...now what?

[snkjohnson]

Went out to water the chickens (I have 13 hens all about 1 year old, with a few 4 month olds) and found one of my leghorns dead on the floor of the coop. I'm guessing she died yesterday because she was pretty stiff/frozen and it got down to about 9 degrees last night. I hadn't noticed that she or anyone else looked sick or was acting strange, but we've been out of town and my parents were collecting eggs so there's no way to know for sure. No blood or obvious injuries to her body that I could see.

What do I do now? I'm worried about disease spreading to the other girls. Could it have been the cold? We've had as cold or colder nights this winter with no problem. The only difference I can think of now is that during the day the snow in the run is melting and it's pretty wet/muddy. Other than that nothing has changed.

Would love your thoughts, experts. Thanks in advance!

 

[azygous]

If she was caught outside the coop at night, then she probably froze to death. Or if your parents saw some ants or other insects and decided to spray them, then an insecticide killed her.

Or she could have been sick for a while with a crop disorder or a stuck egg and no one noticed, and she died from receiving no treatment.

Or she had a genetic organic issue that ended up killing her.

The only way to discover what killed her is to send her body to a lab for a necropsy. If you haven't buried it or sent it off in the trash to the dump, refrigerate it and call your university extension office for information on how to locate a lab.