What could this be? Help please.

[crgraham32]

I am new to chickens. We purchased a coop and an existing flock (12 hens of various breeds) that came with it about 2 weeks ago. Everything seemed to be going well, but on Saturday, one of my hens was laying on her side not moving much. I picked her up, and she was responsive, but when I sat her down, she kind of wobbled on her legs and fell over again.

I tried to give her water and food, but she wouldn't take it. I then poured a little water on her back to cool her off (it wasn't that hot, but I didn't know what else to do). Once I did that she was able to stand for a while but then sat down. I took her into the coop and sat her by the water for the evening. When I came out and opened the coop in the morning she was dead.

She had seemed fine up until that point. All of the other chickens still seem fine. I'm worried that there may be a sickness going around.

Any ideas?

 

[ozarkmomma]

How old are the chickens?

 

[crgraham32]

I'm not entirely sure, unfortunately. I know they are all at least old enough to lay, but not how much older they are.

 

[John Clarke]

I'm new as well so can't give any advice but I feel for you. After a while, they are no longer 'just' chickens but my girls.

 

[Judy]

Chickens are very good at hiding that they are ill. If no one else seems sick, a likely cause would be a reproductive issue like internal laying or ovarian cancer. Or she could have had any of a number of other problems, similar to people: heart disease, liver disease, aneurysm, etc. The main thing is, you aren't seeing symptoms in the others, so hopefully it was a condition she alone had. If the flock had one of the chronic diseases that chickens get, often a viral respiratory disease, it is likely that just the stress of the move would have at least caused symptoms in the others. I think you dan guess with a fair amount of confidence, at this point, that whatever it was, was confined to her. I hope so!

 

[realsis]

I'm sorry for your loss! Above post is correct it could have been a number of things. More info would be needed to guess what the problem was. But hopefully it was a isolated problem. And not contagious
Just keep a close watch on the other birds for any symptoms. Again I'm so sorry for your loss! Best wishes.

 

[crgraham32]

Thanks everyone! So far, so good. No additional problems so far. Egg production has actually gone up in the last week. We now have 10 laying hens, and 1 pullet. We have started getting about 7 eggs a day out of them, up from 5. We actually got a pullet egg yesterday for a total of 8 eggs.

I haven't seen any other chickens looking sick, although we didn't notice the one that died was sick until the evening she ended up dying.

I am thinking that like you all said, it was just the one hen at this point.