What happened to my chicken? Sudden death of a <1 y/o hen

[lbc1]

I found my nearly one-year-old RIR dead in the coop this afternoon. Last night, I found this weird crumbly egg shell thing in the coop too, but none of the hens were acting differently.

She was huddled in a corner of the nest box. I checked her all over because she hadn't been dead long and didn't find any marks, but her vent was kinda gross, it seemed to be pushed open, with what looked like egg white coming out, along with some odd-looking runny poop. What could have happened? I have ducks that live in a hutch near their water supply, and they all free-range during the day in my backyard. A neighbor's rooster had been chasing her the other day too. (I have no roosters.) Could an egg have cracked inside of her? There was no blood or tissues anywhere.

Here's a picture of the weird egg shell I found...

 

[dsljim]

It was a reproductive infection , last year I had one rir hen die of the same thing. I think I googled "chicken poop pictures " there is an emergency thread on an Australian? Site. It isn't contagious, it's just one of those things.

 

[lbc1]

Are there usually any warning signs? I don't remember her acting any differently yesterday (I'm having trouble remembering the last time I saw her yesterday, but she did go to bed earlier than the others), and the day before that she was definitely acting normal. Other than the weird egg shell, there's nothing weird in the coop, and the only odd discharge I've found so far is what is directly on her body (at her vent). I just hope she wasn't in too much pain, and that there wasn't some sign I missed that could have spared her...

Could it have been some disease like this? http://www.organicvet.co.uk/Poultryweb/disease/pull/pull1.htm
The runny/mucoid poop sounds the same, the sudden death... but she had been acting normal, laid a normal egg two days ago, eating normal, etc... just so weird.

 

[dsljim]

Happyhenhouse.proboards.com

I posted this picture there April 3,2012 in " post your dropping pictures here" they moved it and started an emergency thread. They were very helpful.