Sudden death

[frgntd]

I have 12 laying hens that are almost 1 year old. They have gone through this frigid winter and kept laying 7-10 eggs per day. Yesterday there was one very small egg among the regular sized ones. Today I found one of my beautiful BRs lying dead in a nest box. She had obviously been dead for hours because she was stiff. We are new to raising chickens and this is the first one we have lost since we got them as 1 day old chicks. So sad.

I have no idea what she died from or if it is related to yesterday's egg since I have a mixed flock and am not able to ID which hen lays which eggs. Ideas? If I want to have a post mortem, where do I go?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Duckopolis]

She might have dies because she had egg laying problems. Maybe the egg got stuck.

 

[Phoenixxx]

Mystery deaths suck. I had one this morning, a 4 yo BA hen that I recently acquired.

I would start by checking for parasites because they're the easiest to detect and easiest to treat. Go through the feathers on any of your birds; how are the lice/mites? Just the odd one here and there or large groupings everywhere? Next time you witness a fresh poo, take a closer look and see if there's anything wriggling in it; if so, there's a worm overload. Is there red in anybody's poo? Even if you're not seeing anything obvious in the poo you can take samples to a vet for testing. Parasites are normal, but if they get out of control they can stress the host to death.

Sickness is possible, too. There's a link to chicken diseases on another thread but so many share the same symptoms it's nearly impossible to make an accurate diagnosis. Are any of them coughing, acting sluggish, anything weird?

That's about all I've got. I've had a few chickens be healthy one day only to drop dead the next. Most had been recently-acquired from unknown or unhealthy conditions so I'm pretty sure my deaths were parasite related. I know the second bunch I ever acquired were so riddled with mites/lice that if you picked up a chicken they would start crawling up your arms!

As for where to get a necropsy done, couldn't tell you. If you've got the stomach, you can probably do one yourself if you have an idea of the kinds of things to look for.