Two dead in the last few days

[CindyG]

I have no idea why!? Last week I went into the coop in the morning and there was one of my Wyandottes lying dead on the floor. She was the runt of her hatch, was always in the coop, didn't even get down off the roost much except to eat as far as I could tell. Now, today, I went out to the same coop and my Serama hen was hunched up in her cage as if sleeping, with her head turned to her back and her feathers fluffed up a bit. She has been very quiet and still for the last few weeks, and I thought molting. Anyway, I picked her up and she didn't respond, brought her inside thinking maybe it was too cold out there for her, she had a few mini spasms where she arched her head up and back, then she died. Oh dear, do I have a disease in the coop. All the others seem just fine, doing their usual chicken stuff. I'm terrified it's Marek's but how do you tell? The Wyandotte was only hatched this past spring, never laid an egg, not sure how old the Serama was, I got her as an adult but she was laying just fine for a while, then went to soft shelled, then nothing for quite a while now. Anyway, just wanted to get some opinions from you all. Thanks.

 

[PunkinPeep]

I don't have personal experience with Marek's, but that doesn't sound like it to me.

If you were to do necropsies, i would suspect you might find that one or both of your girls had peritonitis or some other egg-laying complications....or possibly some impacted crop issues.

A chicken who is still and quiet for days or weeks at a time is almost certainly a sick chicken - or a broody one, but that would be more obvious.

Also, i would not expect a chicken to remain in the coop on a roost all day just because she's a runt. I'm certainly not the end all of knowledge on the subject, but that sounds like a very sedentary, possibly sick chicken to me.

I'm very sorry for your losses. We all learn through these experiences.