Sudden decline/death in hen, causes?

[HeidiGretchen]

My 3 year old black australorp hen - Peng - died unexpectedly. Thursday morning she seemed fine/normal. Thursday around 5 I found her (and our five 2 month old chicks) hiding between the dog crate (for the young chicks at night) and coop wall. I slid the crate out a bit just in case Peng was stuck. She didn't come out, but sometimes the hens "hide" from the roosters. Didn't think much of it. When I closed the coop around 8:15, I saw Peng lying on top of the nesting boxes, limp and legs hanging over the edge. I picked her up and she was alive. Carrying her to our shop, her one foot grasped my finger but her other entire side was limp. I dipped her beak into nutridrench and water several times and she drank. I thought it may have been the heat, although it has been hotter much if the summer and we have lots of water available bc we also have ducks.
Checked for egg bound, vent prolapse, any sign if injury. Nothing obvious. Checked on her again around 11 and she was sitting upright looking around. Gave her some food options - feed, bread soaked in water and nutridrench, calcium - but she wasn't interested.

When I woke up and checked her, she was dead. She had released her bowels and there were no signs of worms.

I examined her. She was thinner than I expected based on her fluffiness. No feather loss - some of our others have feather loss or damage, so maybe mites or just over amorous roosters. Her comb was pale but had been red Thursday morning. She hadn't been laying, at least not with regularity, for months.

I did take her for necropsy (it's free in Arkansas for pets/backyard flocks) but results will take a week.

Looking for ideas about cause of death so I can treat my flock preemptively. Going to do a full clean out and thorough Permethrin spray. Bought fresh feed (was almost out anyway). I've only lost 1 her from sickness, so I don't have medications on hand.

Open to suggestions. Worried about the rest of the flock.
Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. Do you have multiple roosters who may have kept her from food, or chased her around? How many hens to roosters? Are the chicks okay? Was she their broody hen/mom? Weight loss could mean that she was not getting enough to eat for some reason, some type of cancer, or a crop problem. Had she molted recently? Since she was being chased and was hiding, I would spend some more time with them, or use a game camera, and try to see if any are being bullied. I have multiple feeders and waterers in hot weather in and out of the coop and run. Some flat pans of shaded water are also for cooling their legs. Make sure the ventilation in your coop is good and check the temp with a thermometer. Let us know what the necropsy shows.

 

[HeidiGretchen]

Sorry for your loss. Do you have multiple roosters who may have kept her from food, or chased her around? How many hens to roosters? Are the chicks okay? Was she their broody hen/mom? Weight loss could mean that she was not getting enough to eat for some reason, some type of cancer, or a crop problem. Had she molted recently? Since she was being chased and was hiding, I would spend some more time with them, or use a game camera, and try to see if any are being bullied. I have multiple feeders and waterers in hot weather in and out of the coop and run. Some flat pans of shaded water are also for cooling their legs. Make sure the ventilation in your coop is good and check the temp with a thermometer. Let us know what the necropsy shows.

We do have 3 roosters, but only 2 who mate with the hens, and although we have 20 hens, the roosters have a few favorites. Those girls are missing back feathers from.the attention. Peng did not seem to be a favorite, had all her feathers and was normally fine roaming the yard. The coop is fairly large, well ventilated. The yard is huge, enclosed with chain link fence. Lots of space. We have 3 feeders in different spots. Peng usually ate the scraps and scratch I put out in the morning with all the others, and didn't run from the roosters. (I do have 1 hen who keeps up in the coop too much to avoid the roosters, but she's still pretty heavy, and she does come down to eat.) There are 3 waterers and then 2 dishes of water that they can walk in, although none of them do. I'm usually out with the chickens 3 - 4 times between opening and closing the coop, more lately because we introduced the Young hens about 4 weeks ago and I've been checking they aren't getting bullied. One hen occasionally pecks at them, but I haven't seen any real aggression from.any of the chickens. The babies were store bought. Peng had never gone broody. She hasn't melted since last fall that I can recall.
I don't know if anything jumps out... thank you for the input. I'm wracking my brain and so nervous about the other chickens.
I will definitely share the necropsy results!

 

[HeidiGretchen]

@Eggcessive
The necropsy came back - primary cause of death is stricture/stenosis suggestive of the ingestion of a large amount of beetles. Secondary cause is peritonitis.

Would a thorough permethrin spray of the yard and all accessible areas help with the apparent abundance of beetles Peng found?
As for peritonitis, I didn't see any symptoms. She and another hen lay nearly identical eggs, and we stopped getting daily eggs from them after last winter's break, so I'm not sure how often she was laying but I know if wasn't often.

Here's the report:
Necropsy - avian Verified by JIN XIE on 09/03/24
Spec # Test Sample ID Specimen Result
1 Necropsy - avian Peng Cadaver See Comments
Comment:
Clinical history : Limp in coop, et al. See the submission form.
Gross examination : Presented, 3-year-old, backyard hen was in good body condition. The pectoral
musculature was fair (BCS 3/5). The crop contained multiple metallic beetle shells admixed with feed. The
small intestine had multiple loop adhesion and its affected lumen was narrowed and contained multiple
metallic beetle shells. The gizzard contained a couple of similar beetle shells. Other tissues/organs were
grossly unremarkable.
Gross diagnosis :
Intestine; stricture or stenosis
Peritonitis
Comments:
The cause of death in this bird is presumptive of peritonitis secondary to intestinal stricture or stenosis,
which is highly suspected to be associated with ingesting large amounts of beetles. AI and MG/MS are
ruled out due to neagtive PCR results.
A Health backyard flock brochure is attached.
AI PCR Verified by JamiSims on 09/03/24
Spec # Test AnimalID Specimen Result Ct
4 AI PCR Peng BrothTube Not Detected 0.00
Mycoplasma gallisepticumPCR Verified by JamiSims on 09/03/24
Spec # Test Specimen ID Specimen Result
4 Mycoplasma gallisepticumPCR Peng BrothTube Negative
Case No: 24-L8912 Page 1 of 4

Mycoplasma synoviae PCR Verified by JamiSims on 09/03/24
Spec # Test Specimen ID Specimen Result
4 Mycoplasmasynoviae PCR Peng BrothTube Negative
LabCoordinatorfinalizationVerified by JIN XIE on 09/03/24
Spec # Test Specimen ID Specimen Result
1 Lab Coordinator finalization Peng Cadaver
This isaconfidentialreport for official use only.
All results arefor samples as received.

End of Report

 

[SilveryMoon888]

Thank you for sharing ... amazing, who'da thunk'd that hens could eat too many beetles; good to know though

 

[Eggcessive]

Thanks for posting the necropsy results. I had missed this. Do your chickens have access to poultry grit for helping the gizzards grind up food? Did you know what kind of beetles that she was eating? I think I lost one to a gizzard impaction and intestinal blockage with peritonitis once. I had tried spreading some sunflower seeds in the coop bedding so the chickens would stir it up, and she just tried to eat them all. The shells were found in her gizzard. A blockage and necrotic area of her bowel was also noted on a home necropsy. I have seen another bird with fresh food available who would eat tree algae and other plant material instead. She had a crop impaction that never cleared.