Found one of my boys dead this morning.

[CrazyFowlFreak]

My Buff Orp free range roo was acting funny yesterday evening. He was opening his beak really wide a whole lot. He was still behaving normally except for this. He hadn't crowed since noon. We found him against the garage this morning. He had passed away sometimes in the night after midnight when we went to bed. Was his crop maybe impacted, you think? There was nothing else wrong with him but the beak opening. I checked and there wasn't anything in his throat and he seemed to be breathing normally, except now and then he'd make a croak sound. Any ideas?

 

[silkiechicken]

Did you open him up and take a peek inside? Look at the organs, feel he body, see if things are just "off". If not, then it was probably a heart attack or aneurysm.

 

[tulie13]

Is his crop full or empty? If he was making a "gaping" motion, gapeworm comes to mind but you should easily be able to see this if you swab his throat with a Q-Tip. Plus, it sounds like it was sort of sudden, and also gapeworm is more common in tropical areas and Southern US - you are in WV, I would not really suspect gape worm. Check his crop - if it is impacted it should be really full/hard, although the true test of an impacted crop is that it "won't empty". Obviously with a dead roo on your hands you won't know if it "wouldn't empty" or if he just ate a bunch before he died...

If you feel brave enough to do a little cutting, you could see WHAT is in his crop (assuming it's full) and see if it is characteristic of something that MIGHT have impacted him (large object, big ball of grass).

 

[CrazyFowlFreak]

I couldn't, he was already in rigor mortis. Poor guy.
Although, I can't say I'll miss him, but he was, um, well, an annoying PIA who kept trying to eat my Chihuahua.