Tip Over Syndrome

Not much is known about this strange phenomenon and a search on the internet will yield little or no information. Yet this does happen but few people ever realize that something is different.

When a chicken dies from a non predatory attack it will die on it’s side. When a chicken dies from tip over syndrome it dies flat on it’s back. Death is instantaneous with no warning signs. It is thought to be caused by a heart attack brought on by pulmonary hypertension which is also the root cause of Water Belly and Ascites.

I have witnessed this phenomenon first hand and it is quite remarkable. A hen or rooster who appears perfectly healthy, eating and scratching, all of a sudden stands upright and tips over backwards dead. In the big poultry houses that grow meat chickens, they sometimes refer to these deaths as "Flippers". The post mortem signs are very atypical in that the bird is flat on it’s back with wings out to each side. The head is laid straight back and the feet are up in the air. It is almost like a stereotypical comic death pose.

There seems to be no correlation with breed or age. It could be a genetic defect but because of the rarity and lack of documentation it is hard to track the root causes. It is not contagious and it does not appear to be caused by care or lack there of within a flock. It is not caused by fright. Until further research can be done and people recognize that this death is different from most, this syndrome will continue to be one of the poultry worlds unknowns.