Heart failure

[Bug616]

My Serama roo was fine yesterday. This morning, he seemed a little lethargic and within an hour, he appeared to die of a heart attack. He started wrenching his neck, flailing wings, and flipped over backwards. He was 1 1/2 years old.

He was on the smaller side and from show lines. The hen he was with is perfectly fine. I normally keep them in the house and often move them to the porch when the weather is nice. I forgot to bring them in last night, but the low was still only 65 where I am and no wind. Could that have caused this or more likely to be congenital?

I have other pet quality seramas that are much hardier and live outside 24/7 without a problem.

 

[FrostRanger]

Just bad luck. Sometimes chickens die from stuff like that for no obvious reason and sometimes no way for us to prevent it. You can reduce the likelihood of issues by limiting treats but even then some birds are going to have issues no matter what you do or don't do

 

[Bug616]

Thanks, I talked to the breeder and they thought he was chilled. The outside low was only 7° lower than my house temperature and they were well out of any wind.

Now I'm concerned about the hen, the breeding pair had been together for a while. Should I try to introduce one of my quieter "pet" hens as a buddy?

 

[FrostRanger]

Thanks, I talked to the breeder and they thought he was chilled. The outside low was only 7° lower than my house temperature and they were well out of any wind.

Now I'm concerned about the hen, the breeding pair had been together for a while. Should I try to introduce one of my quieter "pet" hens as a buddy?

Chickens aren't that fragile, not even bantams like seramas. The only ones who would be in danger at those temps are very young chicks who don't have a heat source (and chicks with a heat plate would be fine, I've brooded chicks where the ambiant temps were lower than that and they were just fine and are all still doing fine as adults) . If their birds are indeed that fragile I would not buy birds from them again in the future as that's not a breed trait of seramas, that's just poor quality control for health on the breeder's part. Again, I don't think that he died from the cold as no healthy adult bird of any breed would freeze to death in those temps, that was just random chance

I would absolutely slowly introduce the lone hen to a friend as chickens are flock animals and are stressed when kept alone

 

[Bug616]

Chickens aren't that fragile, not even bantams like seramas. The only ones who would be in danger at those temps are very young chicks who don't have a heat source (and chicks with a heat plate would be fine, I've brooded chicks where the ambiant temps were lower than that and they were just fine and are all still doing fine as adults) . If their birds are indeed that fragile I would not buy birds from them again in the future as that's not a breed trait of seramas, that's just poor quality control for health on the breeder's part. Again, I don't think that he died from the cold as no healthy adult bird of any breed would freeze to death in those temps, that was just random chance

I would absolutely slowly introduce the lone hen to a friend as chickens are flock animals and are stressed when kept alone

Thank you, that's along the same lines as what I was thinking. My pet seramas are pretty hardy and super friendly, I've brought them inside for temps under 40, but anything above that and they're fine.

The roo was fine yesterday, I noticed he was off this morning and about an hour later he flipped on his back and died. They're on a strict diet with an occasional dried worm that my big layers like. My pet seramas are out scratching in an outdoor pen and eating random bugs. I really didn't think 65 should chill him...