# my barred rock died



## morningsidefarmva (Nov 21, 2014)

I came home today and check on my hens. One of my Barred Rocks was in the coop area on the floor laying in the deep bedding. I didn't think much about it because it has been cold here and the hens occasionally will rest inside the coop when it is cold out. When I came back to close them up for the night I noticed she wasn't with her buddies on the roost so I put her there. I turned around to finish emptying their water out so it wouldn't freeze and next thing I hear is a thump and she was on the floor. I picked her up and she didn't seem well so I said you are coming with me. By the time I got to the house she died.

Now let me back up ... The day before I was putting plastic up around their pen to break the wind. I had brought some stick in to hold the plastic in place. One of the sticks has a string on it and the hens played with it and one of my Barred Rocks got it and was running with it and the hens were chasing it . I thought this was cute & funny and entertaining. Now I am not sure if this was cute. I am thinking she may have eaten the string. Does this sound possible? Is this what caused her to die? Or should I be looking for something else? She was fine this morning and I looked over her and she looked fine and her vent whole was clear. I wanted to see what others may think and if I should be looking out for something I want to know what to look for. I have 17 left and don't want to lose any others.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

It is very possible that she ate the string. Usually kills slowly though, not quick like that. 

How was her weight when you picked her up? Any other symptoms? Sometimes hens just drop dead, without. Necropsy it's hard to determine what killed her. All you can do is speculate to try and keep the others from the same fate.


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## littlelimabean (Oct 21, 2014)

I'm sorry that you lost your hen. I have seen one of mine eat a long piece of plastic in the past, but she was fine. How old was your hen? It could be any number of things just as Fiere said. I only have seen one just drop dead with out previous symptoms, but it was in July.


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## morningsidefarmva (Nov 21, 2014)

She looked healthy like I said before. Not sure what you mean by weight.. She wasn't acting strange and when she was in the coop I didn't think anything is strange. Though today I have been watching other hens. She wasn't even a year yet.
Is there anything I should be looking for.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Was she thin, is what I mean by weight. 

So many things could've happened: stress, parasites, birth defect, string, internal injury, heart attack, illness, poisoned... so hard to know. Like I said, you can sit and rule things out but without a necropsy nothing will be absolute fact when this happens. It's rare, but not uncommon, for a bird to just drop in a few hours. 
The worst is that when a bird is sick, they are usually on their last leg by the time they show it, which makes it all the harder to treat and figure out what caused it.


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