unexpected chicken death! ack!

[staceyffalls]

I have six chickens (had six chickens, now I have five). One is pretty old, but she is the head chicken, and she is feisty as ever. Two I got as pullets 2.5 years ago, and three are Rhode Island Reds that I got as pullets this past winter. Today I went out to lock the chickens in for the night, and I saw one of the new, young, Rhode Island Reds dead on the ground in the "inside-ish" chicken run area. She had clearly been dead for a few hours as she was very stiff, but there were no signs up attack. She has, over the last few days been healthy as ever. She has not shown ANY symptoms of anything. No runny eyes, no runny beak, no feather loss, no weight loss, no loss in appetite. I think she has even been laying, as we have gotten the usual number of eggs every day. She just suddenly died. She was under a year old, and she seemed perfectly healthy. Does anyone have any ideas about what might have happened?

 

[ericbolstridge]

I had a chicken die under very similar circumstances, though she was smaller - only about 6 weeks old. We decided the only thing that would enter a secure coop / yard, kill, and leave the body behind would be a snake.

We found ours soon after she was killed and her head was wet - where the snake had attempted to swallow her (but the snake realized she was too big and left).

 

[yourbadd]

We had a similar experience here today....one of our 12 week old Americana was missing at roll call last night and I found her this morning under my tractor. She had been dead for many hours. I examined her and saw no signs of wound or blood. She did had quite a lot of poo near her rear-end but I expect that is just a result of the releasing of the bowels upon death.


Any signs or symptoms of disease we should be on the look out for in the rest of our flock?


staceyffalls, I hope it was an anomaly and you don't lose any additional hens.