Strange, unexpected death

[TheChickenGirl16]

Early this morning, when I let out my chickens, everyone was fine.
Then about an hour later, I went out to check on them, and my 13 month old Americana hen was walking around with her tail down. Then she started sitting down with her wings out. Every time I picked her up, she sat back down. I immediately thought she might be egg bound, but I couldn’t feel an egg.
So I separated her,(within sight of the others), just to be sure she wasn’t getting picked on, and came in to do some research. I decided to give her a calcium supplement just in case if she really was egg bound. But by the time I got out there with it, she was already gone.

I really don’t know what happened, and would love to have any information from anyone.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures, it all happened so fast.

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

Also, when I went to remove her from the run, she had a thick, clear liquid oozing out of her beak.

 

[Bawkbok]

The fluids could be the body releasing after death or she could have aspirated? Was she pooping, eating and drinking normally this morning? When was the last time she laid and egg? Did you inspect her for any wounds? Was her vent normal looking? Is it hot where you are? Could she have over heated? Have you added any new chickens to the flock recently? Hard to say without a necropsy what exactly went wrong. I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

The fluids could be the body releasing after death or she could have aspirated? Was she pooping, eating and drinking normally this morning? When was the last time she laid and egg? Did you inspect her for any wounds? Was her vent normal looking? Is it hot where you are? Could she have over heated? Have you added any new chickens to the flock recently? Hard to say without a necropsy what exactly went wrong. I'm sorry for your loss.

Thank you for your response.

I saw her eating and drinking normally this morning, however, as soon as she started sitting down, she lost her appetite.

Her regular egg schedule is 2days on, and 3days off. So she wouldn’t have laid her next egg until tomorrow. Her last egg was Sunday.

She was popping properly this morning, and it looked normal.

She didn’t have any wounds. Vent looked normal. It’s still cool here(Tennessee) I’ve checked for lice, worms, everything.
I’m at a loss.

Once again, I didn’t notice anything was wrong until about an hour before she died.

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

The fluids could be the body releasing after death or she could have aspirated? Was she pooping, eating and drinking normally this morning? When was the last time she laid and egg? Did you inspect her for any wounds? Was her vent normal looking? Is it hot where you are? Could she have over heated? Have you added any new chickens to the flock recently? Hard to say without a necropsy what exactly went wrong. I'm sorry for your loss.

Sorry for my ignorance, but aspirated? What does that mean?

 

[Bawkbok]

Aspiration is when something you swallow "goes down the wrong way" and enters the airway (trachea or windpipe) or lungs. It can also happen when something goes back into the throat. The airway isn’t completely blocked, unlike with choking. It’s something that you meant to swallow or that belongs in the digestive tract like food, water, etc.

 

[Altairsky]

Hard to tell without a necropsy. Could be anything, really.

 

[ForFlocksSake]

do you have poisonous snakes? Is it possible she was bit by something?

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

Aspiration is when something you swallow "goes down the wrong way" and enters the airway (trachea or windpipe) or lungs. It can also happen when something goes back into the throat. The airway isn’t completely blocked, unlike with choking. It’s something that you meant to swallow or that belongs in the digestive tract like food, water, etc.

Thank you, I will keep that in mind.

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

do you have poisonous snakes? Is it possible she was bit by something?

I’ve been told than we have copperheads, (though I’ve never seen one). But you definitely could be right. It did happen quickly. Our spiders aren’t out yet.