Ideas concerning sudden hen death? (Warning: photos)

[Nashville Hen Mom]

Last week we lost a four-year old Silver-Laced Wyandotte during a heatwave. She was acting perfectly normal the morning of the day she died, had been laying consistently, and was eating and drinking well. The pictures here are those that I took during a quick look inside of her. I was mainly looking for signs of coccidiosis since I was worried about my other birds and because we are getting a few new hens soon. The intestines looked healthy. However, there was a lot of yellow fat in the organ cavity. It sounds as if it might have been fatty liver disease. However, other than her age and the heat, there were no other risk factors that I could identify. She was part of a flock of three hens that roam a 60 foot X 20 foot yard every day. Her diet is solely organic layer pellets, vegetable and fruit scraps, and a few mealworm treats (one handful shared between all three birds a couple of times a week). She felt extremely heavy to me when I examined her compared to how she felt when I used to carry her around while she was alive.

Tomorrow morning the body must be disposed of. I wanted to check and see if there is any other thing I might want to look at to explain her untimely death (at least, in my opinion). Second, are there any things that I could do differently to reduce the risk of this happening to my other hens? The death was over a week ago and other than the yard being quieter than usual, everything with the remaining girls seems fine.

 

[Kiki]

I am sorry for your loss
You might want to read these:
Sudden Death Report.
and
http://articles.extension.org/pages/69065/feeding-chickens-for-egg-production

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If you want to know for sure, this is your state poultry lab.

Kord Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory


TN Dept of Agriculture

436 Hogan Road

Nashville, Tennessee 37220-2014

Phone: 615-837-5125

IAV-A, CSF, ND, FMD

I have had birds die from heat and from fatty liver disease. The latter's flock was immediately put on a diet.

 

[Chickenlover2017]

Possibly a predator

 

[Nashville Hen Mom]

I am sorry for your loss
You might want to read these:
Sudden Death Report.
and
http://articles.extension.org/pages/69065/feeding-chickens-for-egg-production

Thanks for your quick reply. It appears as though the link to the "Sudden Death Report" isn't working. I did read the feeding recommendations and they say to do exactly as I have done for the last fifteen years that I have had chickens. The girls get a limited number of veggie/fruit scraps and they are mainly comprised of squash seeds and pulp which I believe have some beneficial effects on chicken health. As far as the amount of feed, these girls really aren't big eaters. They forage the yard all day for bugs so I think that they don't have a whole lot of appetite beyond that.

 

[Nashville Hen Mom]

Possibly a predator

I didn't see any signs of a predator. Also, the birds are enclosed by a six-foot fence which is actually double protection due to having a farm fence inside of that.

 

[Kiki]

#1 a link to the thread where the lab report is.
She too thought she fed her chickens a good diet....but realized TOO many treats happened too often.

Have you ever had fresh poop tested by a vet for worms?
Have you ever wormed your flock?

 

[Nashville Hen Mom]

I didn't see any signs of a predator. Also, the birds are enclosed by a six-foot fence which is actually double protection due to having a farm fence inside of that.

#1 a link to the thread where the lab report is.
She too thought she fed her chickens a good diet....but realized TOO many treats happened too often.

Have you ever had fresh poop tested by a vet for worms?
Have you ever wormed your flock?

I actually stumbled upon this thread while I was looking up causes of pullet death. Two cups of mealworms per day? That IS a lot of treats. Our three birds went through 120 pounds of commercial organic layer pellets per year. They didn't really receive treats except for the squash seeds and tomatoes scavenged from the garden in the fall. I think that it in this case genetics were involved. In many discussions revolving around the disease (some in scientific literature), there are an inordinate number of Silver-Laced Wyandottes mentioned. Since this is livestock we are talking about, I doubt that many good scientific studies will be done on the subject. It is good that we have this forum to discuss real-life experiences that often go unmentioned.

 

[Trishkabob]

Nashville hen mom, I'm sorry about your hen dying. We just had the same thing happen tonight-similar description (seemed fine, hot day, suddenly died) and also a SLW (i noticed someone wondered if something is going on with this breed).
We didn't open her up and buried her so too late but if you come upon anything that sheds light on what happened, would you post? I'm concerned about the others (5 remaining) and will watch them carefully but it's hard to not have a sense of what might have happened.
(if anyone knows of a live link for "Sudden death report" and/or can redirect I'd appreciate it. As noted, the one referred to in another post doesn't work). thanks.

 

[rebrascora]

@Nashville Hen Mom

Well done for having a look inside your girl. I know it is not an easy thing to do, especially if you have an emotional attachment. Did you take any more photos or expose any of the organs to check them individually?
It is normal for hens in laying condition to have a pad of yellow fat on their abdomen. What you don't want to see is it encasing their organs, particularly the heart and gut. Fatty liver Syndrome will usually show up in the liver which will often be discoloured or mottled.
I'm wondering if the orange coloured tissue is actually a mass of egg yolks that have been laid internally and deposited in the hens abdomen.... was there a lot of fluid too when you cut into the abdominal cavity? Feeling extremely heavy is a very common and tell tale symptom of internal laying and ascites (water belly), but if she had been laying regularly, that would more or less rule it out.... can you be sure you were getting eggs from her until very recently....she might still have been going into the nest box and singing the egg song, but the egg not actually coming out. That amount of egg yolks would have taken some time (usually months) to build up inside her and solidify and once they start internally laying, the weight of the mass usually pulls things so far out of alignment that they never lay eggs properly again, so being sure that she was laying within the past couple of weeks at least, would rule that diagnosis out..... she would still have the red comb appearance of a hen that is laying because she was still ovulating, just that the eggs were dropping into her abdominal cavity instead of travelling into the oviduct to be surrounded in albumen and a shell and laid properly.
It is unfortunate that I have only just come upon this thread as I appreciate it will now probably be too late to request further photos. Did the orange matter feel like it was made up of lobes that could have been squashed semi solidified egg yolks? And was it located low down between her legs?

If she was laying internally (this is very different to being egg bound) the build up of mass and usually fluid puts a huge strain on the internal organs including the heart, lungs and intestines. A hot day might be all it needed to make that pressure more than her organs could cope with and she probably died from a heart attack.