Chicken found dead unexpectedly with blood coming from vent

[HollyJane94]

Hello, this evening i found one of my hens dead on the coop floor. She was lay on her back and had blood coming from her vent. She also had and bloody injury on her neck which looked like signs of pecking.

That morning she had laid an egg. When collecting the eggs I noticed that her egg was clean but other eggs in the nesting box had small amounts of blood on. There was also small droplets of blood on the perches in the coop. But no sign of blood in poo.

Leading up to this the hen had seemed health and displayed normal behaviour. She has been laying egg nearly every day and eating and drinking as normal. She is just under a year old.

I am unsure if my hen died from a disease? Such as coccidiosis and there are some watery droppings in the run and coop area? But have not shown any other symptoms of this? Or could one of the other hen have attacked her? One of the other hen had blood on her back and the back of her head but no injuries? Could she be the cause of the chickens death or has she pecked the chicken when she was ready dead?

This is the first hen I have lost. I have a small flock of 6 hens and I’m worried for the other hens. Do I need to treat my other hens incase it is coccidiosis? Do I isolate the hen that was found with blood on her on incase she was the cause of her death?

If anyone has any advice I would be truly grateful.

Thank you
Holly

 

[Stephnrobby]

I would isolate the one hen just in case and double check the others for any illness. I was gonna say sounded like egg bound but that's not the case if she laid an egg.

 

[Eggcessive]

Did the dead hen have any signs of a prolapsed vent when you found her? They can suffer a prolapse that will attract pecking because the prolapse is red. But it sounds like your hens are pecking at each other. That can lead to cannibalism as may have happened in the dead hen. How much room do you have in the coop, and what do you feed? Are any of the birds more aggressive? I would spend the next few days watching them and observing their behavior. Boredom from not getting outside to roam, overcrowding, and feeding less than 16% protein in a balanced feed are some possible causes. Sorry for your loss.