Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Hello, I am new to this site. I have a story to share in the hopes that you can ease the pain in our hearts.
My 15 yo Daughter finally wore us down and last summer she purchased 4 silkie chicks, all hens. They have been the most fun and we all just adore them. My daughter walks them on leashes, cuddles them every night before bed, goes out and reads them books. They are the most spoiled chickens ever. They are most definitely pets. They just turned 10 months old a couple of weeks ago and they have been giving us eggs since about February. Yesterday, after school, my daughter went out to spend time with them as she does everyday and she found one not acting quite right. She was not walking well and kept falling over. She called me out and within 5 mins she could not stand at all or hold her head up. We tried to entice her with some treats but no response. I picked her up to examine her and she started opening and closing her mouth, without a sound. She then suddenly started to flap her wings, made a couple of small squawks, her head went back to her back and she just died. It was horrifying. I have done a little bit of research and can only come up with Sudden Chicken Death Syndrome. Does anyone know if this can be an option on such a young hen? I see lots of reference to this in roosters but not much with hens and nothing for this young? If that is what happened to our Pippy, I can accept that it was a freak thing, but I would like some reassurance that I have come to the right conclusion. Of course, we are now super worried about the other 3 hens and hoping that it is not something else that could effect the rest of our very small flock. Any advise and words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Here is a picture of our little angels in the fall. Pippy is the one closest to the pumpkin.

Well I'm sorry to hear that but welcome to our site anyway. Several people on the site have silkies so I hope they'll hop on soon with info.
It doesn't sound like it to me since it usually happens with broilers, I iknow that doesn't help you.

Sorry to hear that you lost one of your little Silkie girls. It's always hard to lose them, and sometimes difficult to know why.

It sounds like she had a heart attack. Nothing you could have done and the rest should be fine. Like all living things some have health issues some never do.
Pretty girls, sad you lost one.

@Chick Flick I'm very sorry for your loss. I would go along with what Kenya suggested above.
Sadly, chickens can hide illnesses very well.
Take comfort in the fact that it sure sounds like you gave Pippy the very best chicken life possible and she died in the arms of someone she loved. I hope you and your daughter can take some comfort in that.

Thank you all for your kind words and comments. It was a very tough day but we are feeling a little more at peace. It will be a while before we feel comfortable leaving the other girls unchecked for any length of time.

@Chick Flick Silkies are very good at hinding things. Because they are always big and puffy you don't really notice if they are acting off. I agree with @kenya it was probably a heart attack and nothing you could have done.

Your babies are very sweet. Lots of us have silkies and showgirls. So, ask lots of questions if you need help.

I'm sorry to hear that you lost your little silkie.
Our introduction to hens 6 yrs. ago was with standard size Black Sex Links on our newly purchased 1890's small farm. I found a hen dead in the coop one morning. Then we found that most of them had bumblefoot - a staph infection. It creates a black scab on the foot pad or toe, with a hard kernel underneath that has to be removed. After all the foot bathing and bandaging, we did not lose another hen to that.
However, after that, I noticed that where we built the fenced enclosure, and the hens were scratching, etc., there was a lot of broken glass and nails from some previous owner's demolition of some structure. For quite a while I'd often go around with a magnet broom, or such, and a hand cultivator and kept finding nails and pieces of glass.