Sudden death

[NewAtThis8]

Good evening,

One of my hens (1.5 years old) suddenly died today.

She was fine, except that she and several others are missing feathers that we didn’t see a cause for (mites, lice, etc).

She did have the most missing feathers of all of them, but she was laying up until the time she passed, was eating and drinking and had red comb and wattles.

Her vent was bulged like maybe egg bound, but wasn’t acting egg bound.

I’m distraught and want to prevent this from happening to the rest of my flock. What can I do? What does it sound like? Is sudden death without cause a thing for a young hen like this?

 

[rgardiner7000]

I'm seeing this post was from a long time ago....did you ever discover the cause?

It sounds like an egg bound situation to me, but sometimes they do poop a lot when they die and that could cause a buldge.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[NewAtThis8]

I'm seeing this post was from a long time ago....did you ever discover the cause?

It sounds like an egg bound situation to me, but sometimes they do poop a lot when they die and that could cause a buldge.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I just posted it today- I’m not sure what could have caused it but am upset and panicking about what to do with her body; we want to bury her but not sure if a necropsy is needed or if this seems like something that just happens if nothing else seemed wrong…. We watched the camera in the run and she was fine, eating a bunch of food, then went into a corner of the run that I couldn’t see her too well in and looked like she was either dust bathing or struggling, and then an hour later she was dead- a distance away from where we last saw her on the camera. I have no idea what could have happened but a thunderstorm did roll through- nothing that she hasn’t experienced before though.

 

[rgardiner7000]

Sorry, I got confused by your "member since" date, thinking it was the post date.

If you have her body, you could check for an egg in her vent, which might give you some answers.

 

[rgardiner7000]

Was she a speciality breed? I've heard of chickens that are fancy breeds having congenital heart problems

 

[Pigeony]

How hot is it in your area and how humid? Hot and humid is a difficult combo for chickens to handle- and just pure heat without humidity can get hard for them if it's hot enough. My area is likely going to be above 100 every day this month, so I have to take quite a few measures to keep them cool and check on them often.

 

[NewAtThis8]

Was she a speciality breed? I've heard of chickens that are fancy breeds having congenital heart problems

She’s a RIR, but was advertised as a starlight green egger- so a “hybrid breed”.

 

[NewAtThis8]

How hot is it in your area and how humid? Hot and humid is a difficult combo for chickens to handle- and just pure heat without humidity can get hard for them if it's hot enough. My area is likely going to be above 100 every day this month, so I have to take quite a few measures to keep them cool and check on them often.

It’s pretty hot and humid, SE PA. It’s been in the mid 80s - 90s.

We’ve found a vet close-ish by that can do a necropsy to get answers. But I am concerned that this is my fault- I’ve posted a few places about mites and their feather loss. Ultimately I chalked it up to a feather picker because we have one girl who has not a single feather gone. I saw new pin feathers appearing on the flock after I upped their protein and took measures to reduce stress so was hopeful it was that- but wondering if it is a mite situation. She had the worst of it, her underside, base of her tail were completely bald or thinning and her skin was very red, almost purple in some spots. I feel like a failure.

Also, any advice on depluming mites / mites in general? Best way to eliminate them if they indeed have this problem? I saw some feathers (big ones, like wing feathers) on the floor of the run last night when cleaning and putting them to bed…

 

[NewAtThis8]

So the necropsy came back and preliminarily it looks like two things- a bacterial infection in her abdomen and an enlarged heart / possible infection in the heart valves.

I suspect it was a coliform infection (E Coli) which I know they carry in their intestines in small quantities normally- based on this article and how she just suddenly died without any symptoms of illness at all.

Mississippi State University Article

Question now is- supposing the rest of the flock has this too and managing their environment of stress and keeping things VERY clean will reduce any further infection and death of the rest of my girls, is it okay to eat their eggs?? I have to imagine large CAFO farms have more unsanitary conditions than my back yard and people eat those eggs AND the chickens every day, but want to be super sure as we also give them away to the neighbors.

Something the doctor said in our discussion about was about the waterer and wet environments- it’s been raining for a whole week here. Standing water that they like to drink and is contaminated with bacteria and also biofilm in their waterer- a rookie mistake for me; we have a 2 gallon PVC waterer with the little red cups on the bottom. Unfortunately, I dump, rinse, and refill and don’t typically wash it with soap and water. So I feel very responsible for her death and am only trying to figure out how to keep the rest healthy and learn from my mistake.

Hope this helps someone else!

 

[NewAtThis8]

Also- no mites! So we definitely have a feather picker…. And I know exactly who it is (the one with all her feathers lol)