Why did my chicken die? Her vent is a bit red.

[JuliaSunshine]

A few hours after I noticed one chicken looking lethargic this afternoon, she died tonight.
She just had her eyes closed panting softly last time I checked.
I couldn't feel any egg bounding. The face looked normal.
The picture is her vent upside down just after she died. It looks a bit red and swollen but I'm not sure. Is this normal?

 

[Lumenflower]

Best way to find out what happened would be to perform a necropsy; there are lots of guides online showing what to look for and many causes of death will be obvious even if it's your first time doing it.

if you can't do it yourself, some states have labs that will do it for you. With this option, you'll want to keep her body refrigerated (not frozen) until you're ready to ship it to the lab.

It's almost impossible to tell what happened without proper medical investigation, but I will mention that when I had a hen die this year of EYP & ascites, her vent looked similarly "pushed out" like this from the shift in pressure inside the abdomen.

 

[WingsysRoost]

Seconding everything above, and adding that she may have had some form of cancer - I lost a hen to what I suspect was ovarian cancer, and her vent was also pushed out like that, likely from the swelling. (My hen ended up with a prolapse, but she was also a very small bird.) An infection could cause something similar, I would suspect.

I hope you're able to get some answers on what happened, and I'm sorry again for your loss.

 

[JuliaSunshine]

Best way to find out what happened would be to perform a necropsy; there are lots of guides online showing what to look for and many causes of death will be obvious even if it's your first time doing it.

if you can't do it yourself, some states have labs that will do it for you. With this option, you'll want to keep her body refrigerated (not frozen) until you're ready to ship it to the lab.

It's almost impossible to tell what happened without proper medical investigation, but I will mention that when I had a hen die this year of EYP & ascites, her vent looked similarly "pushed out" like this from the shift in pressure inside the abdomen.

Thank you. I have decided to let it go as the cause of her death doesn't look like something contagious. I'll just pay more attention to my chickens' health. It was good to know more about what chickens could die from.

 

[JuliaSunshine]

Seconding everything above, and adding that she may have had some form of cancer - I lost a hen to what I suspect was ovarian cancer, and her vent was also pushed out like that, likely from the swelling. (My hen ended up with a prolapse, but she was also a very small bird.) An infection could cause something similar, I would suspect.

I hope you're able to get some answers on what happened, and I'm sorry again for your loss.

Thank you again. I'm so sad but I'll need to accept that this is a part of having chickens. When one chicken was sick a few days ago I thought of not having chickens at all but now that another chicken got sick and died on me I can see the reality of keeping chickens.
I'll do what I can do to look after them better.

 

[WingsysRoost]

Unfortunately, the reality of having chickens (and other animals) is that sometimes these things do happen. Sometimes, despite getting the best care possible, there's just something wrong. It really hurts to lose them, regardless.

I wish you the best of luck and continued health for the rest of your flock.

 

[LhickenChicken]

Sorry about your hen, chickens can be easily difficult. I wish you better fortune in the future.