Sick Hen :(

[blackfishfin]

Recently, I noticed that one of our chickens was acting very strangely. Over the past two days she's been randomly lying on the ground and sleeping. The other chickens were not picking on her, but it still alarmed me. I checked up on her and I couldn't feel anything strange about her, so I let her continue her life normally. Yesterday around noon, I went outside to check on the chickens and she was lying flat on the ground sleeping. It wasn't just sleeping. There was obviously something wrong. One of our other hens kept walking all over her back and stepping on her face, but she would still not react. I picked her and put her on her feet, but she sunk back down and went back to sleep within seconds. She slept for about 45 minutes on my lap, and I sat and pet her the entire time because I could not figure out what was wrong. I gave her some electrolytes and a lot of vitamin c+b, but she still didn't respond. She wasn't eating and I had not seen her go to the bathroom in a long while. She was still laying normally, though so it could not be an inbound egg. I had to jostle her pretty roughly to get her to wake up. I gave her some worms and grubs and some feed and she ate them just fine. When I went back outside again, she was trying to sleep on a small stump and a chicken accidentally pushed her off and she tumbled to the ground and lied there, sleeping again. She didn't even try and flap her wings when she fell over! I was panicking and worried all night, but by night time she was on the roost normally and I mistakenly let her stay there. I found her dead on the ground this morning. Based on her position, I figured that she fell off of the roost and was too weak to get back up, so she just tucked her head in behind her wing. We figured that my neighbor might have killed her, but I could not find any wounds.
What could have happened? I don't want this to happen to my other chickens!

 

[Chicken_lover1]

I'm sorry for your loss. I have only owned chickens for a year and I haven't experienced anything like this before but I did some research for you and it may be Marek's disease

 

[blackfishfin]

Thanks! I'll look into it.

 

[bobhoke]

If you want a best guess then have a necropsy done and hope you have a vet that’s worth it. Good luck.

There are a litany of issues a chicken can have. Periodically, they just die.

In 6 years of raising birds I’ve seen that 3 times. They always pass. When I see anti social lethargic birds, I always inspect and isolate them. Then I provide them with food and water in a safe place. Then they died. I’ve never had more than one bird die at a time over a year. It’s odd. We always have 30-90 birds so when it’s happens it happens and they’re disposed of if they don’t turn around. Monitor your birds and watch for obvious abnormal behavior and then investigate. You can save some birds. Good luck.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry for your loss.

The only way to know what was wrong is to either send to body to your state lab for necropsy or you can try performing your own informal necropsy to see if there was something obvious.
If you wish to do one yourself, post some photos and we will try to help you with what you see.

You can find your state lab in this list http://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

If you want to do one yourself, the video below is helpful

 

[bobhoke]

I'm sorry for your loss.

The only way to know what was wrong is to either send to body to your state lab for necropsy or you can try performing your own informal necropsy to see if there was something obvious.
If you wish to do one yourself, post some photos and we will try to help you with what you see.

You can find your state lab in this list http://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

If you want to do one yourself, the video below is helpful

That’s good info.

 

[blackfishfin]

If you want a best guess then have a necropsy done and hope you have a vet that’s worth it. Good luck.

There are a litany of issues a chicken can have. Periodically, they just die.

In 6 years of raising birds I’ve seen that 3 times. They always pass. When I see anti social lethargic birds, I always inspect and isolate them. Then I provide them with food and water in a safe place. Then they died. I’ve never had more than one bird die at a time over a year. It’s odd. We always have 30-90 birds so when it’s happens it happens and they’re disposed of if they don’t turn around. Monitor your birds and watch for obvious abnormal behavior and then investigate. You can save some birds. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice! I'm looking into some diseases that she might have had and none of them are contagious, so I'm just watching the chickens like a hawk and praying that no more chickens start acting like she did.

 

[blackfishfin]

I'm sorry for your loss.

The only way to know what was wrong is to either send to body to your state lab for necropsy or you can try performing your own informal necropsy to see if there was something obvious.
If you wish to do one yourself, post some photos and we will try to help you with what you see.

You can find your state lab in this list http://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

If you want to do one yourself, the video below is helpful

That’s good info.

I would, but we already disposed of the body.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would, but we already disposed of the body.

I understand.

If you happen to lose another one in a short period of time, investigating further would be a good idea. I do take a look inside mine when I put them down, I won't say it's the most pleasant thing to do, but often I can take a really good guess when I'm done. Sadly, reproductive disorders are often a common cause of a hen's rapid decline.

 

[blackfishfin]

I understand.

If you happen to lose another one in a short period of time, investigating further would be a good idea. I do take a look inside mine when I put them down, I won't say it's the most pleasant thing to do, but often I can take a really good guess when I'm done. Sadly, reproductive disorders are often a common cause of a hen's rapid decline.

I understand. I might start doing that in the future, but for now I'm just going to sit back and watch how my chickens behave.