Sudden Death

[AvocadoAbi]

Hi yall...
It's been kinda a hard day.
My hen, Angelica, passed away very unexpectedly early this morning.
She turned two years this June.
She is a Buff Orpington, and lives in a big coop with two other hens and a rooster, who don't pick on her, and has clean bedding and dirt, and water and food.
She laid 5-6 days a week.
There was no animal, no disease, no symptoms, no marks on her body from a potential animal that tried to kill her, absolutely nothing to tell me she was going to die.
The last time I saw her alive was yesterday evening. I was holding her and talking to her and she was perfectly fine.
The only thing I can think of is that she was just starting to molt, but even so, I kept a close eye on her, and gave her a safe amount of extra protein everyday.
Angelica was so happy here, anybody know what happened?
She was the teacher's pet and the most energetic and friendliest out of our whole flock besides our rooster.
I miss her so much.

 

[SmiYa0126]

I'm so sorry for the loss of Angelica, sending warm hugs to you.

 

[Weeg]

Do you feed treats? If so, what treats, how often, how many, and to how many birds?

If you still have her body a necropsy through your state lab would she’d done light.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Big hugs.

 

[AvocadoAbi]

I'm so sorry for the loss of Angelica, sending warm hugs to you.

Thank you so much

 

[AvocadoAbi]

Do you feed treats? If so, what treats, how often, how many, and to how many birds?

If you still have her body a necropsy through your state lab would she’d done light.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Big hugs.

We give them chicken scratch occasionally, and a tablespoon of mealworms every day to the whole flock.

 

[Eggcessive]

If you still have her body available, you can get the state vet to perform a necropsy on her, but you need to keep her body refrigerated in plastic bags until they do it. What state are you in? Here is a list of state vets to find yours:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[Weeg]

We give them chicken scratch occasionally, and a tablespoon of mealworms every day to the whole flock.

How many birds in the flock?

Fatty liver disease, caused by the over feeding of fatty treats can cause sudden death.

 

[AvocadoAbi]

If you still have her body available, you can get the state vet to perform a necropsy on her, but you need to keep her body refrigerated in plastic bags until they do it. What state are you in? Here is a list of state vets to find yours:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

I'm in CA.
I've heard vet visits are expensive, do you know how much a necropsy costs?

 

[AvocadoAbi]

How many birds in the flock?

Fatty liver disease, caused by the over feeding of fatty treats can cause sudden death.

We have 4 birds.
We only give them scratch 1x a week, and a very small amount of mealworms daily.

 

[Weeg]

I'm in CA.
I've heard vet visits are expensive, do you know how much a necropsy costs?

At most state labs it’s very inexpensive. 35$ on average. It cost 35$ to get my hen necropsied.