Young hen died suddenly

[Stephine]

This morning I came back to the chicken pen with an armload of greens I had just picked for them and found my dear BR hen lying in the corner right next to the door. It is a favorite digging spot and since she had one wing sticking out to the side I first thought she was dustbathing. Then I realized she wasn't moving - she was dead, just right then, she was still warm, even her feet.
I had not noticed anything wrong this morning. Admittedly I didn't look at them all when I let them out of their coop before driving the kids to school because I was in a hurry. But when I came back I cleaned up the poop boards and refilled their feeder without noticing anything unusual.
Of course she was one of my favorites.
The only thing wrong with her that I have noticed before was a bald patch on her bottom, below her vent. There was no discharge and I thought it was a pecking issue. Ever once in a while there woukd be a small downy feather of hers in the nest box. Just this morning as I was cleaning the coop I thought I should maybe just treat her for vent gleet just in case.
Otherwise she was active and lively and curious. They were in all day yesterday because it rained all day but they were freeranging for hours on Saturday - I wonder if she ate something wrong?
Then yesterday there were only 8 eggs from the girls when we have been getting 9-11 per day unfailingly for the last 3 or 4 weeks... was it Matilda's egg that was missing? Her crop was not full when she died but she also was not skinny or light, she had a normal weight.
I am so sorry for her. I wish I had realized something was wrong. At least she didn't have to suffer long...
Of course now I am eyeing all my other hens suspiciously, and counting them. Ouff. Farm life is tough.

 

[Stephine]

Hm. Is this too long? Too boring? Too I don't know what....
I thought maybe someone might venture an idea of what happened, or share a similar story or just say they are sorry. Oh well.
Still counting my remaining chickens every couple of hours. I hope they will be fine. I hope it was just something specific to this one hen.

 

[Blue Bubbles]

Hi first can I say that I am so sorry for your loss. we lost our Bluebell yesturday to egg peretinitus. She went down hill so quickly, she was fine in the morning. In the afternoon she was lethargic and not herself so we brought her into the house so she could rest. She got worse, we took her to the vets and she passed away while a were there. She also had lost some feathers below her vent. The vet told us there was nothing we could have done and that peretinitus is almost always a killer. We are finding it pretty hard to handle.. Bluebell has just reached her 1st birthday. This is our first attempt at chicken keeping, at the moment in tempted to give up because I feel so awful about not spotting the signs. So at the moment im putting my best foot forward and focussing on her sisters X

 

[Stephine]

Oh, BlueBubbles, I am so sorry you lost your Bluebell. I will read up on peritonitis. Did the vet say if the bald spot had anything to do with it?
I feel bad about not noticing anything amiss, too. We had rain all day yesterday and so I didn't spend much time down at the coop after the usual morning chores when everyone was doing fine. Then this morning I just popped their door open and ran off to take kids to school...
It is disheartening - I only hope that everyone else stays fine.
I already had to bury a chick two weeks ago that got too stressed in shipping. That was my first dead chick ever. And then today my big lovely hen....
I pray that Bluebells sisters will be just fine and live long happy chicken lives!

 

[Blue Bubbles]

Thank you for your kind words Stephine. Im sorry to hear about yout baby and your big hen, its obviously been a very difficult time. The vet didn't mention anything about the feathers around her vent. To be honest she was dying when we got her there so he didn't go into too many details about it - other than her abdomen was hard (it seemed fine in the morning) and that for it to be so quick it was most likely an infection caused by egg peretinitus. Just a word of caution about reading up on it - it's not easy reading so only do it when your feeling ready too. Her sisters seen fine! A little lost at bedtime because Bluebell was the bossy one so they weren't sure what to do.. it's going to take time but we will get there! X

 

[Stephine]

Thank you for the warning - I read all abbout it...
My hen didn't show any of the symptoms at least a day before she died, but I guess they can go down very quickly, too.
I still wonder about the bald spot, if it had anything to do with it. My hen, too was the bossy one. In fact she was the one behaving most like a rooster chick when she was young and once the alpha roo left (he was aggressive to me) never let the former beta roo near her. Almost all the others had bald spots on their backs - not this one!

 

[Stephine]

Hope your other hens are still jus fine, @Blue Bubbles.
I got a bit of a fright last night when I locked them in some of their combs looked pale. I had just refilled their dustbath with woodash, so I wondered if that was what it was but as the night went on I became more and more convinced that they were all getting sick.
Then this morning everyone came out of the coop bright eyed and bushy tailed, though still a few looking pale. So I grabbed the one that looked the worst and brought her over to the faucet, got my fingers wet and tried to rub her comb, she wouldn't have it, so I went for the wattle instead, got it nice and wet and what do you know, it turned red again. Little tricksters! I was so relieved!!
Thinking back I now remember finding a really eggy looking spot on the poop board about 4-5 weeks ago. I though someone laid an egg from the roost - ever once in a while I find one in an open space, so I didn't think too much about it.
Now I think tgat was probably Matilda's EYP beginning. It only happened that one time.

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

Look up "Rest In Peace, Acorn"In the search bar.
That's just what happened to my hen, but I saw it.Alive one minute, having. Sezuire the next, then dead.

 

[Stephine]

Oh, cluckcluck I am so sorry! That is such a shock. I will go read about Acorn.