Unexplained death of hen.

[laura877]

I have an indoor riding arena and some of the chickens roost up about 20 feet in the air in the rafters. This morning I go out to check my meat birds in the arena and there is one of the laying hens dead. No blood, no claw marks, nothing. I have no idea what happeend to it. I plucked a few feathers to see if it had any talon marks, but nothing. I thought maybe an owl might have come in the arena. I don't mind doing a autopsy but don't know what to look for. Any ideas of what happened or any suggests what to do.

 

[Judy]

How old was it? If it was a Cornish X, they tend to die of heart failure / ascites -- you would see fluid buildup inside.

 

[dawg53]

Twenty feet up in the rafters is a pretty high place to roost at night. There's no telling what the reason was why she fell off her roost.

 

[laura877]

I 'm not sure how old she was as one just like her was given to me along with 14 other birds. It coul dhave been the baby that was hatched last summer or it could have been the mother. I'll have to look at the other one more closely. I did cut her open this afternoon and water came gushing out. I even picked her up and water continued to pour out like someone turned a faucet on. I felt inside and didn't feel any egg, didn't see anything out of place, etc.

I have about 5 that roost that high up. If I could catch her, I would trim her wings. Occassionally I do catch them and put them in the coop for the night but they prefer the rafters.

The arena and stall area is 60' x 156' so there is plenty of room for a owl to come in even though we have never seen one in there.

 

[dawg53]

Sounds like she had ascites...water belly. That's your answer. Sorry for your loss.

 

[laura877]

I'd never heard of Ascites but thats probably what it was. Although what I read, it appears that it happens mainly to meat birds and that she wasn't. It is a good thing that i read about is as I do have cornish crosses from Townline Hatcheries in Michigan. I have tried to keep food in front of them all the time so that they would be ready to butcher at 6-7 weeks. Maybe I had better slow down the feed.

 

[laura877]

I lost another one last night. This time one of my meat birds. Her underside felt a little squishy and I cut it open only to have yellow water come gushing out. What causes this ascites? Is it something that I need to be concerned about it going thru my flock?

 

[bairo]

Sounds like she had ascites...water belly. That's your answer. Sorry for your loss.

x2