Binge caused death?

[Jacobnlynn]

I had two roosters in their own separate pens (they had both attacked my kids.. so I was keeping the restrained to put on weight before butchering). Yesterday I got a fresh batch of wet grain (it comes from the brewery.. it was still super hot out of the boiler). I let it cool, then filled each roosters dish. They both acted fine. Rooster #1 ate almost a full pan.. it was ridiculous. Rooster #2 ate less than half the other one did. A few hours later my 4 year old came in and said one of the roosters had an X over his eye... I brushed it off.. silly kid.

Well, this morning I go out and the rooster is dead. So I'm guessing that's what he meant (him and his friends were watch Pink Panther last week). I opened him up.. his crop was really big full of grain.. I'm wondering if binging can cause death. All the other chickens ate the same grain but are fine. They hadn't been out of food.. but the don't care much for the grain once it's been dried out.. and that's what they were eating the 3 days before the new batch of grain came in.

Thoughts?

 

[Okie Amazon]

Quote:
I'm sorry about your roo, but this made me smile anyway. I wonder if he got a "hot spot", sometimes grain can hold heat a long while. If all the others ate the same thing only less of it, I wouldn't think about a bacterial source.

 

[Jacobnlynn]

He really hadn't even digested it. If he was dead by the time by son found him.. maybe 2 hours later from feeding he had died.

I did an autopsy.. as much as I could. The crop it's self wasn't discolored. I could be wrong.. but I think if the crop had burned it would have had lighter spots indicating burn. ?? But I don't know. I was having a hard time getting his chest open.. used a pair of wire snips.. and there was a lot of blood in the chest.. don't know if I just severed an artery though. There was some blood in bigger veins in his neck where the blood wasn't fully coagulated. He was cold all the way through.. so he was definitely not alive during the night. This grain is all my chickens eat.. I don't even have any acting odd.. everyone is running the yard as usual... got 5 eggs today (my flock is just starting to lay).. this is a step up from previous days. His crop was fully intact.. and I followed it down to the gizzard.. the grain wasn't quite there yet.. but his crop wasn't blocked. Then, when my head was turned the dog ran off with the dead rooster. I'm sure it's been eaten.. so I can't check any other organs. But.. earlier that day when I refilled his dishes, and that afternoon when I gave him the new grain, he acted perfectly fine. He even threatened to peck the kids for having their hands too close (thus why he was in the bad chicken pen).

 

[Judy]

I wonder if he had a heart defect and the heart simply ruptured. It would have been a very fast way to go if this is what happened.