Why did my Welsummer die?

[Shasty57]

I have a small flock of backyard chickens. 11 young hens and 1 rooster that I have raised in my home from 2 or 3 days old. My Welsummer, Summer was 28 weeks old, laying 4 or 5 eggs a week, eating good, running around and playing with the rest of the girls.
She enjoyed her treats and looked very healthy and beautiful. Clear eyes, no runny nose, no sign of any illness. On Friday when I went to put them away for the night, Summer was outside of their 50 x 50 foot chicken yard. As soon as I let her in the gate,
she ran to the water and starting drinking. I did not see anything wrong with her and I put them all in their 16x16 foot enclosed chicken pen which is attached to their chicken house. When I let them out on Saturday morning, I didn't notice any problems with
Summer but I couldn't find her at first yesterday afternoon. She was laying under the tree and when I started to pick her up, she got up and walked away, seemingly fine. I thought maybe she was starting to go broody as she was laying in a box when I locked them up last night. Today when I let them out, she was laying next to the water in the enclosed chicken pen dying. I picked her up and she was barely breathing and she looked at me, closed her eyes and died. Please give me an idea of what could have happened to my sweet Summer. All of my other chickens appear healthy. I feed Layena (pellets), give them only healthy types of treats ie. watermelon, apples, pears, etc. and they also get Chicken Scratch at night for a treat to get them into their covered enclosure (16x16 foot covered dog kennel). Any help would be appreciated.

 

[sourland]

I'm sorry for your loss, and this is nothing more than a guess. If she was outside of the pen possibly she ate something that was poisonous.

 

[realsis]

Im so very sorry for your loss!!! I couldn't guess what happened with out a few more clues. I just wanted to say im sorry you lost your sweet bird. Perhaps someone else might be able to take a guess. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[Dwells]

Sorry to hear for your rough time and loss. I am also guessing but agree with her eating something toxic. One of the main clues is the need for a great deal of water. Similar to how rat poison works. Do you have any of that for rodent control?? If you are feeding pellets the rat poison comes in pellet for also. Further certain plants and other foliage can also be toxic in a chickens system.
We only have four chickens three which we have raised from one day old so I can imagine how rough it would have been for you to hold your hen and watch it pass away.
I would go through what they have access to and check their enclusre carefully to see if there were any foreign matter introduced somehow.

 

[Shasty57]

Thank you all for your replies and words of sympathy and advice. We do not have any rodent poison on our place as I have 4 outside cats for rodent control. I think she must have ate something toxic also. My other concern is my dog, she runs in the same field Summer was in on Friday. I just checked my chicken yard and I don't see anything that could have hurt her. My Iowa Blue rooster is not very happy with me since I took one of his ladies out and didn't bring her back. My husband thought maybe something could have attacked her when she was out but I checked her whole body over before I buried her and she did not have a mark on her. No lumps, sores, feathers missing, nada. So sad to count only 11 chickies out there instead of 12.

 

[Shasty57]

I am new to this and evidently I posted my question twice. Here is a little more info I posted on the other post.

I have been scouring the illness threads and I keep seeing Marek's disease. She had no symptoms of this horrible disease so hopefully not that. I already buried her so no necropsy will be possible. I suppose I will watch the rest of my girls and my rooster even closer than I do and watch for anything unusual. Since Summer had gotten out and about on Friday, I think she may have ate something she shouldn't have. She was in the bean field and possibly the timber. We live in the country and I thought the hawks, owls and 4 legged critters were my biggest threat to my chickies. Thanks again and if I figure out what happened or have any other babies get sick, I will post it.