19 week old Cockerel sudden death

[ella2025]

I don't know how to start this thread.

I just found Carlos, my 19 week old silkie rooster lying dead smack in the middle of the chicken run. I was in the chicken coop hanging out with the chickens just hours before, at around 3. He was ALWAYS healthy and active, with no signs of any of the common chicken Illnesses, even hours before his death. I checked all around his body for any wounds. Our run is super secure and there's nothing externally that could justify his death. Sadly we don't have a camera in the coop.Here are some possible causes that I think might be it.

1. New rooster. We brought in a new Ameraucana rooster about the same age as him. Unfortunately due to me not being super educated, I didn't quarantine him and I didn't really take all that much effort to introduce them. He and my other silkie rooster fight sometimes, but nothing too crazy, and Carlos is usually pretty chill with the new rooster and doesn't try to fight him. The new roo is not particularly aggressive during fights, and will stop when the other roo runs away. He doesn't have any wounds which I believe means it's probably not caused by a fight.

2. Lice? I found a few little white bugs on a few of my young pullets around the time the new rooster came . Yeah not quaranteening was a super mega bad idea and I was stupid. I treated them with the only stuff I had which was Poultry Protector and DE in the run. I've checked most of my chickens at least 10 times for the lice, but only the chicks had them, and only on some days can I see them on the chicks. I treated the chicks like 3 times. Carlos never showed any signs of having them, and every time I checked him I never saw any despite him having black fur. Permethrin just arrived today and I will probably treat the whole flock today. On his dead body I actually saw a few lice. I strongly believe its not the lice either because he never showed signs of having them, and there are VERY few on him, 2 that I could see, and never have I seen them when he was alive.

3. Heat stress. We've had a few upper 80s and up to 90s days. They have shade in their run and they stay there in the shade between about 11 am to 5 pm. They have fresh water constantly available and I see all the chickens drink a lot.


What do you guys think? The last 2 photos were taken when I was with him a few hours ago. He looked the same as he always did, no new signs of illness. Will I have to cut him open to see any internal stuff?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I’m not a Silkie expert so I will defer to others on this but I know they can be fragile in ways other chickens are not. I have had chickens die for no apparent reason though and it sucks but short of a necropsy you might never know. And we’ve all made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes knowingly because it’s what I had to work with. Don’t beat yourself up about it because unless your other chickens are showing signs of illness I very much doubt it was anything contagious.

 

[ella2025]

I’m not a Silkie expert so I will defer to others on this but I know they can be fragile in ways other chickens are not. I have had chickens die for no apparent reason though and it sucks but short of a necropsy you might never know. And we’ve all made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes knowingly because it’s what I had to work with. Don’t beat yourself up about it because unless your other chickens are showing signs of illness I very much doubt it was anything contagious.

Thank you. I'll keep an eye out on the rest of the flock. All this is so strange. How can I do or send him to do a necropsy and do you know how it works? I'm willing to do it if it's not too expensive.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Thank you. I'll keep an eye out on the rest of the flock. All this is so strange. How can I do or send him to do a necropsy and do you know how it works? I'm willing to do it if it's not too expensive.

Put the body in the fridge for now then I will tag the expert on this who can help you further. @Eggcessive