Looking for possible cause of death for Mathilda

[TwistedGreta]

Hi, my sweet Blue Ameracauna, Mathilda just passed away yesterday I have been absolutely plagued with trying to suss out what might have been the cause so that I can maybe know what to do, God forbid, it happens again to one of my 4 remaining girls... I know folks on here are super knowledgeable, and that without a necropsy, its impossible to say, but perhaps some folks could maybe lead me in the right directions for me to research. Or if someone else experienced this? Here are the facts.

Blue Ameracauna Hen approx 3-1/2" old
I noticed Friday, (3 days prior to death) that her tail was down and she was hanging back in the pack more than normal. Other than her tail down not too much too notice really. Acting pretty normal, maybe a bit lethargic, but she is a bottom pack member of my 5 girls.

Saturday (2 days prior to death) Tail was down and she didnt eagerly eat up her mealworms! She wasnt interested in food really other than the occasional peck. Walking and drinking fine. The other girls would peck at her occasionally but not bullying. Eyes clear no discharge no rasping or weird breathing. I did find the tail being down odd though and her not being into her mealworms.

Sunday (1 day prior to death) Tail down, excessively drinking water and not eating. She wouldnt leave the water bowl. Still clear eyes but her peacomb was lacking in colour, she just lost her sparkle really. No eating. Walking fine but slower. No obvious injury, no discharge. I saw her make a watery poo. Basically it was like water with a wee bit of brown in it, not solid, just like brown moss kinda. I decided to prepare a cage to take her inside as I knew something was seriously wrong and started to read up on her symptoms.

Monday (day of death) She doesnt want to walk but she can. When she walks she doesnt run very fast so I could catch her. My girls are super flightly and normally impossible to catch. They are in a 14 x 20ft run enclosure. I was able to catch her no problem though. She wasnt lame either. Not eating, not drinking, just wants to sit. In her cage I give her some yogurt and oatmeal and tomato but wont eat. I watch her for hours. She declined rapidly. Half way through the day she started to breath at about 44 breaths per minute and would have her beak open and pant! She would also click her beak. Like sort of snapping it shut and then hang it open. No discharge, no bubbles, just the sound of her panting. I had air conditioning on to help keep her comfy so I know she wasnt overheated. I think she started to seizure a little because every once in awhile I would see her twitch weird. Then once her tail (when she stood up) went up and down really rapidly! Very weird. Then she became unbalanced like she was drunk! She would sit more. Her crop felt like it was warm and full of fluid. Not like a balloon, but like there was warm liquid gel inside. She pooped water and a tiny bit of fecal matter and i checked it thoroughly to see if there was any sign of worms. No worms I could see. She had a messy bottom though... I filled a warm sink up to see if she was egg bound (I was desperate and have little experience with chickens. I was reading anything I could get my hands on!) I thought maybe she was egg bound? As soon as I filled the sink and left to get a towel, when I returned she stood up, flapped her wings like crazy as hard as she could and then died!!! When I picked her up (crying of course) she felt really warm. Like hot underneath, but she was laying on straw for HOURS, so might be her own body warmth. I dont know how warm chickens should feel since my girls wont let me pick them up. They come to me for worms, but wont be caught, so I never really got to know what their bodies are like. After death, I did put on some latex gloves and checked her vent to see if she was egg bound. I couldnt feel anything. Only my finger went in and hit a membrane and nothing hard feeling that I could tell anywhere in there (felt very wrong to violate her after death, but I really want to know what happened!)

any ideas??? I thought liver failure or Sudden Death Syndrome. They eat, organic layer pellets, and vegetables chopped up when we have spare. Usually broccoli, carrots tomato. I keep their enclosure very clean and rake the sand every day. The coop has shaving, and the run has sand to help prevent worms. The sand stays so much drier than the mud and they love making sand castles. I rake the sand all the time to keep poo at a minimal and I find the sand sucks out the poo moisture quickly. They have fresh water all the time. The other 4 girls seem super happy and healthy so hopefully it wasnt anything contagious. Im keeping an eye. Just in 3 days she went downhill so fast!! I know she must have been sick for longer cuz they hide it, but I had no idea she was ill until her tail drooped on Friday.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I know its not a diagnoses but I would like to know if anything like this seems familiar to anyone. Thanks for all of your help in here. I love this forum.

RIP: Mathilda May

 

[azygous]

The few clues you've revealed in your post leads me to believe she had a crop disorder and starved from it. It's not "violating" your chicken by examining her to find out why she died. In fact, if you can muster the courage, you might learn something from opening her up and examining her organs, starting with the crop.

If you don't feel competent, you can have an agricultural lab do a necropsy. I strongly urge you to spend time with your chickens to teach them to come to you so you can regularly make health checks. I have mostly friendly, easy to handle chickens, but there are a few that detest being touched. Those are usually the chickens that end up with health issues since I don't get to handle them regularly which could present me with early warning signs.

You can teach your chickens to come to you using treats and a verbal or visual cue. Even the hardest to handle will come close enough to be picked up and examined.

 

[TwistedGreta]

The few clues you've revealed in your post leads me to believe she had a crop disorder and starved from it. It's not "violating" your chicken by examining her to find out why she died. In fact, if you can muster the courage, you might learn something from opening her up and examining her organs, starting with the crop.

If you don't feel competent, you can have an agricultural lab do a necropsy. I strongly urge you to spend time with your chickens to teach them to come to you so you can regularly make health checks. I have mostly friendly, easy to handle chickens, but there are a few that detest being touched. Those are usually the chickens that end up with health issues since I don't get to handle them regularly which could present me with early warning signs.

You can teach your chickens to come to you using treats and a verbal or visual cue. Even the hardest to handle will come close enough to be picked up and examined.

Hi, thanks for the response. I spend lots of time with my girls. I got them when they were 7-8 weeks old and can hand feed 1 one them. They run up to me no problem but wont get too close except my one girl. If I try to pick them up they run screaming and fly. Literally impossible to catch, and I dont want to traumatise them. Im going to get a net though so I can examine them. But seriously these girls dont like being handled. I can get them to come to my calls and food no problem, but if you reach out they are gone. I have spent an exhaustive amount of time with them when they were young to tame them, but to no avail. I see them every day and crouch down to feed them and make food calls for them as well! Just a flighty breed I guess.

I buried my girl sadly. I did think about opening her up, but couldnt bear to do it (I was too sad really. I dont mind blood and guts though) I live out in the country so have no idea where to find someone to do a necropsy. My vet is dog and cats, and there is large farm animals vets about. Not too sure if they would do a necropsy? I can look into it though

btw, I know I wasnt 'violating' the chicken haha, it just felt wrong to do it right after she died. But I needed to know if she was egg bound, so was fine to do it

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. It is really sad to lose one, especially in such as small flock. But to do the necropsy, you can sometimes pinpoint what was happening. It can be hard to tell whether they have a reproductive disorder, cancer, fatty liver, or a crop disorder. Sometimes the signs are there, a full or puffy crop that diesn’t go down overnight, they have not laid an egg or normal eggs in a certain amount of time, they may have some enlargement in the lower belly between the legs, or the tail may be down. Sometimes they are absent especially if there has been extreme weight loss, but inside, there may be something seen.

 

[TwistedGreta]

Sorry for your loss. It is really sad to lose one, especially in such as small flock. But to do the necropsy, you can sometimes pinpoint what was happening. It can be hard to tell whether they have a reproductive disorder, cancer, fatty liver, or a crop disorder. Sometimes the signs are there, a full or puffy crop that diesn’t go down overnight, they have not laid an egg or normal eggs in a certain amount of time, they may have some enlargement in the lower belly between the legs, or the tail may be down. Sometimes they are absent especially if there has been extreme weight loss, but inside, there may be something seen.

Now a wish I had the confidence to do the necropsy. I think if this ever happens again, I will definitely do that. Im also going to get a large net to try and catch the girls to get them used to being handled. Ive tried so hard to tame them, ever since the day I got them, but Im seeing that not being able to handle them is really making things worse. If it was her crop, I couldve felt it on Friday and knew. I did go out and get organic apple cider vinegar (Mother's) and some vitamins to add to their water now. Im going to do some research on crop issues. Thanks for your response!

 

[Peep-Chicken]

You described how my chicken died. She died in a day though. Was fine yesterday, ate mealworms but didn’t come out to free range. I brought her inside to be safe. She was still perky. Drinking excessive water though. Her crop was full of food. The next morning she went downhill. Not perky at all, wouldnt eat or drink. Her crop was smaller but had some squishy ness. Within an hour, she couldn’t stand. I had to go to work but set up a camera. I saw her do the flapping you described, and then she died. I’m going to have a necropsy on her tomorrow to hopefully see what happened to her.