Chicken dropped dead

[bunnochick]

Just posting to people who will understand.

I adopted 3 hens from an animal shelter about a month ago. My girl Morsey (estimated about a year old), who laid the most eggs, was our "guard chicken," and had overall the biggest personality, dropped dead today.

She was squawking this morning around 9am, so I went out to their run to find her alerting us that there were some wild ducks in our pool.

I went back inside, came out about 2 hours later, and she was laying dead on her side, wing slightly extended, feet outstretched behind her.

I have no idea what happened, and I am absolutely devastated. I did so much research before adopting and give them the best quality food, space, and care that I can. We examined her and there were no signs of injury or sickness. Seems completely random.

Of course now I'm worried about if it was avian flu. It's also likely she didn't have the best quality of life before coming to us so perhaps she had issues we never knew about.

Just posting in case anyone else has had random deaths like this and could provide some knowledge that sometimes this "just happens."

 

[lagrange chicks]

I am sure it wasn't anything you did, just like people all of a sudden death. Sorry for your loss.

 

[nuthatched]

Bird flu doesn't kill immediately, it could be previous care, diet, age, etc

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. If you can keep the body cold in a cooler on ice, but do not freeze, you could get some answers by getting your state vet to perform a necropsy. Call them early Monday am. She could have had a heart attack, but it would be very hard to know what happened without a necropsy. Here is a list of state vets to call if you want to do that:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[paradisepentacoop]

Sorry for your loss. If you can keep the body cold in a cooler on ice, but do not freeze, you could get some answers by getting your state vet to perform a necropsy. Call them early Monday am. She could have had a heart attack, but it would be very hard to know what happened without a necropsy. Here is a list of state vets to call if you want to do that:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

I second this- Based on reading a ton of posts, this is the best bet for knowing what took her out. All we can do is speculate. So sorry for your loss <3