Watermelon killed my chicken?

[crunchymama11]

On Wed evening I gave my 5 chickens (pullets- 11 mo) 4 watermelon rinds, which I have done before. All of my chickens were acting fine. On Thursday at noon I went out to check on the chickens before I left the house for the day (my DH lets out and feeds the chickens in the morning). My BA was dead in the run. I examined her and there was no blood/injuries/missing feathers. Thankfully my chickens did not turn into cannibals. I've been monitoring my other 4 chickens and they are acting completely fine- no signs of illness. My BA had laid an egg the day before she died so I don't believe she was egg bound. There was no previous sign of sour/impacted crop.

I went through the run to see if she could have ate something she shouldn't have. The only thing I could find was the watermelon rind. 3 of the rinds were eaten down to the tough skin- 1 rind was down to the tough skin but half of the the skin had obviously been chewed and eaten. I'm 99% she ate some of the tough skin and choked on it, although I know i can't know for sure because I didn't necropsy her.

For future reference- if one of my chickens chokes and I see it happening, is there a way to save the chicken, or is choking a forgone conclusion? There was nothing I could do to save my sweet Annabelle because I didn't see it, but I hate the idea of being so helpless when it comes to losing my girls.

 

[Amandarae1280]

So very sorry for your loss.
I am new to this chicken owner thing and all so no help. Sorry. I know how bad losing a pet feels, even if they aren't conventional pets!
Hope your others are fine.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Absolutely not. I can’t even count the times I’ve given my hens watermelon slices with the rinds. They eat it all.
I’m sorry for your loss. But your hen had something else going on.
Easiest way to know what happened is to send the hen to your state lab for a necropsy.
Make sure if you are feeding your hens anything but layer feed you are offering them poultry grit too to break up and digest the “people food.”

 

[shessowitte]

So sorry to hear you lost your girl. I’m watching this thread because we feed watermelon rinds too. Someone more experienced will answer soon, I’m sure.

 

[Folly's place]

I feed watermelon and cantalope rinds whenever we have it, no problem. I'm sorry about your pullet, but it's unlikely that she died over this yummy treat.
Having a necropsy done would give you answers, or at least rule-outs.
Mary

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Correlation does not equal causation. Merely coincidental that the death occurred after the feeding of that particular item.

 

[Abriana]

I give my flock watermelon too--sometimes they eat the whole thing, tough rind and all. Never had any ill effects from it before. One produce item you do need to exercise caution when feeding is cabbage. The brown, mushy, kind of rotting patches are actually very toxic to chickens. If somehow they do eat it, getting molasass in them quickly will help. And of course, don't feed anything that is rotting or moldy to your birds.

So sorry about your girl--it's always tough to lose them

 

[rebrascora]

I agree with @Kathy Golla that it is far more likely that something else was responsible than the watermelon rind. For instance liver rupture due to Fatty Liver Haemorrhagic Syndrome can cause sudden death in an otherwise healthy bird and is a growing problem as people keep their chickens as pets and feed them too many treats like scratch, corn, bread, pasta and other high carbohydrate items. Another possibility is heart attack, which can be genetic but may also be due to obesity.... those feathers can hide a lot.... and the only chickens we see without them are those big plump ones in cellophane wrap on the supermarket refrigerated counter, so that we don't realise that laying hens should actually be slightly scrawny.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

Did you look her over for other stuff like a prolapse or impacted crop?
I used to give mine pumpkin whole and last time I did I came back and found one of my hens dead laying right next to it and this was just a matter of 1/2 hr. I surmised she choked on a seed. I just couldnt find anything else. The seeds were large.
Sorry for your loss. Freak things just happen sometimes.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

what about pesticides on the skin? Too far fetched too?