What happened to my chicken??

[Xo_phaith]

I love chickens, have own multiple but lately it seems like my luck with animals is running low. Every time life seems good something goes wrong. I started with six chickens, one passed away from a bum infection, I noticed she was sleeping on the floor but I didn’t think anything of it since she was acting fine that morning and still talking(her normal behavior), not to long after she died and 2 more hens came down with this bum infection where they were bleeding from their butts, I got it fixed and they were perfectly fine... so I thought. Today everything was fine, I didn’t see anything wrong with anyone’s bottom and I let them free roam( I do this for about 30mins to a hour) and they go back in their coop on their own I just shut the cage. I went outside to shut the cage and it was weird, they were all sleeping highup, some were on the trash can and two were on their tire nobody was inside the house. I did an inspection and didnt see any creatures so I did a head count and found one dead. There was no blood, beside her bum infection had come back but that couldn’t have been it since she survived with the infection for a week long of course it was being treated during that week but I doubt it’s return in one day was the cause of this. Her neck was wet but there was no blood so I have no idea what happened!! I don’t know if it was the infection because if it was why were the other chickens not sleeping in the house or even by it, when the other one died from an bum infection the others were acting pretty normal I’m thinking it was a predator but why not take the body with them and why wasn’t it any blood?

 

[KikiLeigh02]

How old are they? Did you check for snakes?

 

[Xo_phaith]

She was about a year and 5 months, I did check for snakes however it could have possibly escaped due to the door being opened before I went out there.

 

[rebrascora]

What do you mean by "a bum infection" and how were you treating it? It is important to understand the history of illness up to this point in order to try to figure out what is happening now.
What breed are these birds? Some breeds are more prone to ailments than others so that might help narrow it down. What part of the world do you live in? That might give us an idea of what predators you have if predation is a possibility and what the climate is like and what diseases or illnesses might be prevalent in your country or state.
Have you considered sending a dead bird off for a necropsy? That is the only way to know for sure what the cause of death was.

 

[Xo_phaith]

She was a Sebright chicken, and what I mean by “bum infection” I mean her cloaca didn’t retract and part of the oviduct remain on the outside. I live in MidGeorgia far from the countryside and far from the mountains, the nearest water source is the lake behind my house and the only things I have seen in there were tadpoles. Only other creatures that I have seen or heard of in the area are rabbits,deer,tift mouse, occasionally hawks,coyotes, stray cats and I recently saw a snake about a month ago( I began to monitor them as they were roaming more often and shorten the time). The average temperature is about 70 degrees. I would like to say thank you for the advice, I’ll keep this in mind to prevent further tragedies.

 

[rebrascora]

She was a Sebright chicken, and what I mean by “bum infection” I mean her cloaca didn’t retract and part of the oviduct remain on the outside.

This is called a prolapse and is a very serious matter. How did you treat it? Having more than one chicken suffering a prolapse suggests there may be a problem with their diet. What do you feed them? Birds that are carrying too much fat are more prone to prolapsing. And birds that are carrying too much fat are also prone to Fatty Liver Haemorrhagic Syndrome which can cause sudden death, so their diet could be very relevant.
It does seem odd that they had not gone back into their cage. Was the one that you found dead at the top of the pecking order? Just wondering if her death unsettled them enough not to go in or if it was a predator. Stoats can just nip their necks and suck blood which might be why you didn't see any, but the neck appear wet or the creature could have been carrying her away in it's mouth and got disturbed

 

[Xo_phaith]

This is called a prolapse and is a very serious matter. How did you treat it? Having more than one chicken suffering a prolapse suggests there may be a problem with their diet. What do you feed them? Birds that are carrying too much fat are more prone to prolapsing. And birds that are carrying too much fat are also prone to Fatty Liver Haemorrhagic Syndrome which can cause sudden death, so their diet could be very relevant.
It does seem odd that they had not gone back into their cage. Was the one that you found dead at the top of the pecking order? Just wondering if her death unsettled them enough not to go in or if it was a predator. Stoats can just nip their necks and suck blood which might be why you didn't see any, but the neck appear wet or the creature could have been carrying her away in it's mouth and got disturbed

I had my kin who is a vet look at her and she gave her some cream, and I let her soak in a warm vinegar and edosalt bath for about 10mins daily she was up and running good in a little less than a week but I kept her separated for a couple extra days just to be sure. This was about 3 weeks before she passed. The way their house is set up is that their coop is surrounded by a cage and wire is found about 2 feet around the whole cage on the ground( most is under dirt now but the purpose of this was to prevent animals from digging)along with about a 2 feet tall planks of wood that surrounds the outside so nothing can grab them as they are roaming around in their cage. Near the wall is their coop far from the door, she was found underneath the coop near the backside.Theres also a tire in the corner of the cage on the same wall as the door that’s where most of the girls were and the other two weren’t even in the cage. I feed them their regular chicken feed daily about 1.6 pounds (about 2 house cups).I like to switch up every now and then (3 days out of the week)filling the cups with a little lettuce, cooked noodles, tomatoes, watermelon, oatmeal,cooked rice , occasionally worms and on rare occasions I give them about a forth of a banana slice each.