I woke up and my Rooster I saw dead

[chickens really]

Generally when it's heartattack they are on their backs and yes can be on their side...Legs stiff straight...They just fall over..

 

[SashaLClay]

My main concern was disease. It’s sad but his name was Dinner lol. When we got our chickens we ended up with 4 Roosters so we were going to cull him but of course the kids got attached. We only wanted 1 Rooster for each breed. We had 6 speckled Sussex, 6 Cinnamon Queens and 4 Golden Laced Polish. At least we haven’t lost any the Sussex yet. I’m such a crazy chicken lady too. Always out there talking too them and cleaning the coop daily.

 

[SashaLClay]

Generally when it's heartattack they are on their backs and yes can be on their side...Legs stiff straight...They just fall over..

Well I hope that’s what it was. I can’t really see anything else it could be. I seen him eating and drinking yesterday so he wasn’t starved or dehydrated. I just thought 4 months was a little young but I’m no expert.

 

[chickens really]

Disease won't kill him that quickly...I think your safe...

 

[SashaLClay]

Disease won't kill him that quickly...I think your safe...

Ok good.

 

[rebrascora]

Disease can kill them that quickly. Marek's disease can cause tumours on the heart that kill suddenly with no previous symptoms.
I am concerned that you say you recently got some silkies because silkies are particularly susceptible to Marek's and the disease can be carried by seemingly healthy birds. Did you get the silkies from a private breeder or a hatchery? Your cockerel was at a prime age to have an outbreak of Marek's, when hormones are kicking in and having excess cockerels in the flock causes increased stress on both the males and young pullets. Stress is trigger for a Marek's outbreak.
I hope I am wrong, but it is a very common disease that people are all to unaware of until they have a major outbreak. There are also many myths about the symptoms of it and people assume that because they do not see the classic paralysis, that it must not be Marek's.

Good luck with the rest of your flock but be careful about adding more birds as even if this isn't Marek's, it can so very easily be introduced to your flock and very difficult/impossible to eradicate.

 

[SashaLClay]

Disease can kill them that quickly. Marek's disease can cause tumours on the heart that kill suddenly with no previous symptoms.
I am concerned that you say you recently got some silkies because silkies are particularly susceptible to Marek's and the disease can be carried by seemingly healthy birds. Did you get the silkies from a private breeder or a hatchery? Your cockerel was at a prime age to have an outbreak of Marek's, when hormones are kicking in and having excess cockerels in the flock causes increased stress on both the males and young pullets. Stress is trigger for a Marek's outbreak.
I hope I am wrong, but it is a very common disease that people are all to unaware of until they have a major outbreak. There are also many myths about the symptoms of it and people assume that because they do not see the classic paralysis, that it must not be Marek's.

Good luck with the rest of your flock but be careful about adding more birds as even if this isn't Marek's, it can so very easily be introduced to your flock and very difficult/impossible to eradicate.

I hope that’s not it. Our silkies are only 1 month and still in the brooder. We did get them from a hatchery and they are vaccinated. Is Mereks is one of the vaccines? We are building them a different coop so they won’t be in with the the others. We are also thinking of just giving them a run instead of free ranging like our other chickens.

 

[sourland]

My main concern was disease.

Generally 'sudden death' in anything is not the result of infectious disease. I would guess that the rest of your flock is safe. If you lost another bird this way, it might be a good idea to have it necropsied.

 

[MzGina]

I hate not knowing... Im sorry you have to worry about it all day

 

[SashaLClay]

Generally 'sudden death' in anything is not the result of infectious disease. I would guess that the rest of your flock is safe. If you lost another bird this way, it might be a good idea to have it necropsied.

Yeah I’m deffinately going to have to watch them to see if I notice anything off. Thanks