Went to my chicken coop in the morning and saw my favourite hen stone dead... Please help

[Nay]

Do you think the food killed it?

It is hard to say without complete information. Hopefully some others come along.. but diet, and an incomplete diet could have certainly played a role.
Seed mixes for outdoor birds have a lot of fat and lower protein than Poultry need. Think about a child raised entirely on candy and treats and whatever they could find in a backyard they would survive but not be very healthy.

You also mention that many other backyard birds come in your yard. They could have picked up a disease from the wild birds.

Or it could have been something else entirely such as egg binding or any number of Poultry afflictions.

I'm very sorry for your loss. But please find a food with proper nutrition for your other one.

 

[HozChicken]

It is hard to say without complete information. Hopefully some others come along.. but diet, and an incomplete diet could have certainly played a role.
Seed mixes for outdoor birds have a lot of fat and lower protein than Poultry need. Think about a child raised entirely on candy and treats and whatever they could find in a backyard they would survive but not be very healthy.

You also mention that many other backyard birds come in your yard. They could have picked up a disease from the wild birds.

Or it could have been something else entirely such as egg binding or any number of Poultry afflictions.

I'm very sorry for your loss. But please find a food with proper nutrition for your other one.

I will get poultry food ASAP. Thanks. I feel very bad losing my hen. Please I encourage everyone to not be lazy and always take symptoms very serious. Things end quickly and nothing is worse than all the regret you get afterwards. You can never get them back once they are gone..

 

[ChocolateMouse]

As a heads up, diet can absolutely contribute to all parasite loads. A healthy chicken is less likely to get any sort of diseases and conditions and a healthy bird starts with good feed.

Birds are not all synonymous. Some eat bugs, some eat leafy plants, some eat seeds, some eat fish or small mammals. Getting "bird food" is like getting "mammal food". It doesn't really translate to all birds. You wouldn't give a dog horse feed an expect it to be healthy but that's kind of what's happening here with giving "bird seed" to chickens. Bird seed like that is just meant to be easy calories to attract wild birds and help them supplement their native diets. Not even a complete feed for wild birds.

I would also guess some sort of external parasite from the behavior I saw in the video. That looked more like an itchy hen to me than anything else.

 

[HozChicken]

As a heads up, diet can absolutely contribute to all parasite loads. A healthy chicken is less likely to get any sort of diseases and conditions and a healthy bird starts with good feed.

Birds are not all synonymous. Some eat bugs, some eat leafy plants, some eat seeds, some eat fish or small mammals. Getting "bird food" is like getting "mammal food". It doesn't really translate to all birds. You wouldn't give a dog horse feed an expect it to be healthy but that's kind of what's happening here with giving "bird seed" to chickens. Bird seed like that is just meant to be easy calories to attract wild birds and help them supplement their native diets. Not even a complete feed for wild birds.

I would also guess some sort of external parasite from the behavior I saw in the video. That looked more like an itchy hen to me than anything else.

What type of parasite do you think?

 

[coach723]

The link I gave you before on Lice and mites has lots of good information, and pictures to help you identify anything you find. You will have to find out what products are available to you there. In the US permethrin is the most commonly used, elector psp (spinosad) is also very good, but very expensive. It's very important to treat the birds and the coop, or they will continue to hatch, the treatment kills the live bugs, but doesn't kill the eggs, so you will have to do repeat treatments depending on what products you have, to get the eggs that continue to hatch, until you get them all.
A weakened bird, or a bird that is not strong nutritionally can be susceptible to all kinds of parasites, they tend to find sick or weak birds. If you have a vet that will do a fecal float test for you, that will test for internal parasites. For the external ones you will need to check the birds over individually.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Hoz, no real way to tell from where I'm at. I think coach723 summed it up pretty well for you.

 

[HozChicken]

Thanks a lot everyone. God bless.