Birds dying from fright?

[Sue]

I recently posted about my Barnevelder who I found dead in the hen house one morning last week. She was fine when she went to bed and nothing happened to her during the previous day. It has been suggested to me (by the person who bred her) that she must have died from fright (having a heart attack). He says there must have been something that frightened her during the previous day that damaged her heart and she had a heart attack during the night. My question is - are birds really that fragile that they can be literally frightened to death by nothing in particular? Surely hens living in more stressful environments than my rural back garden would be dropping dead all over the place if this was the case. Can anyone throw any more light on this potential problem as I'm not sure I believe what this person is saying. Should we all be wrapping our hens up in cotton wool?

 

[chrismahon]

I mentioned before some of our hens dying suddenly. One of them definately had a heart attack when our rooster trod her for the first time. He had pecked her comb in an attempt to stay on top. The wound was deep but did not bleed at all. She was a very flighty bird so lived in a permanently stressed state. Not sure about the damaged heart explaination -she may simply have had a heart defect which hopefully is not a trait of that particular breeding line.

 

[Marigold]

There are plenty of occasions when chickens get frightened and they don't succumb to heart attacks. Only last week i was in our garden when a large and boisterous Boxer dog jumped in over the fence and began investigating the henrun. Luckily the girls were safely shut inside, and not out on the lawn, and I was there to remove the dog quickly, but for a minute or two, until I could chase him out, he was barking and standing up pawing the wire and very excited at the panic he was causing. If the hens had been loose he would probably have chased and killed them. (Naturally the owners weren't bothered when I ran out into the field and gave them a strong piece of my mind!) However the girls calmed down and nobody had a heart attack.

There are numerous stories of chickens being rescued from the jaws of foxes or dogs and being OK, and also many reports of hens dying suddenly with no known cause, like Sue's bird. I don't believe that hens just fall dead of fright, or that they need coddling unduly. As Sue says, they'd be dropping all over the place and it would be a known problem that poultrykeepers would try to avoid. I think you're right, Sue, to take this breeder's opinion with a very large pinch of salt! I expect that, sadly, your hen had some heart problems and just keeled over one day from causes we don't understand.

 

[Anonymous]

Our laid back Maran cockerel died quite suddenly - we'd had a fox attack & while he survived with only minor injuries he could have had internal injuries we obviously couldn't pick up on or it could have been the shock of the attack that killed him.

Our neighbours broody (a big Orpington girl) literally died from fright - again it was a fox attack & while she was safely ensconced in a broody coop the foxes did their best to get in there after her. Neighbour found her dead on the nest.

 

[Marigold]

But Sue says nothing had happened to frighten her hen.....