[jamima]

My hen is not well today she was ok Yesterday, she was still in the coop this morning and so i got her out, she seems to be breathing a little heavy, been out and she has gone back in coop seems lathargic and the runs.Any advice please
Just checked her again and she is making a heavy breathing sound.Does'nt seem to be eating and drinking ,her tail is down.

[jamima]

Oh dear just looked again and  she died.

[joyfull]

  so sorry, 

[ANHBUC]

So sorry jamima.   

It may be worth while to try and find the cause for future reference.  Could she have had impacted crop or gape worm?  What breed and age was she?

[jamima]

About 3 yrs old, think she was a black Silky, felt her crop this morning seemed ok, did'nt see her gaping .

[jhub]

So sorry Jamima. Had she been wormed this year?
Sorry for the questions but sometimes it can be helpful to try and determine a cause.

[jamima]

Yes was about to be wormed again.

[ANHBUC]

A post mortem might show what she died of but not sure if that has to be done straight away and would be costly.

Hopefully a more experienced member may be able to ask you more relevant questions to try and diagnose what caused her death.

[wildwitchy]

Arrh, thats always sad.

Silkies can be prone to Mareks disease. Did she have a twisted neck or was paryalysed in the wings / legs. Mareks can cause tumours/lesions in the digestive system,lungs,kidneys,heart.

Had she started to moult and stop laying? Mareks could of been in her system and then developed more if she come into a moult resulting in her death?

Mareks also gives chix a irregular pupil or grey iris.

[joyfull]

if she had jumped up and banged her head she could have had a problem - silkies and other birds with a pompom type of head have a soft spot in their skull (like a new born baby does) and it can get very easily damaged. If she had Mareks (there are a 3 types of of Mareks) I think you would have noticed some unusual signs before the day she was unwell.
If you want to read up on Mareks take a look here
yes it is too late for a post mortem - they really need the bird freshly culled and certainly not frozen as others have mentioned in the past.

[jamima]

She did'nt have any of the afore mentioned things ,thanks for the advice though.

[joyfull]

she could have had a heart problem and sadly there would have been nothing anybody could have done about it