lost my Alpha male this weekend

[sasglm]

He was about 15months old and he had been the king of the hill among the 2 males and 2 females in the pen together. He always ate first and would let the other male know that the the 2 females were always getting little love taps if they tried to get food before he had his.
He came down with what i still suspect was a case of Cocci and had just finished 5 days for safeguard from a syringe into his mouth. So i know he was getting the medicine. I fed them some treats friday afternoon and he appeared to eat again and looked better as far as his moving around. I gave them some pieces of bread and i thought i saw him run and pick up a piece of the bread and because he was competing with the 3 others i thought i saw him gulp down a rather large piece of bread but didn't think anything of it because it sometimes amazes me the amount and size of the bread that they get a hold of.
We left for the weekend and my MIL came over before dark and checked in on them and feed the chickens. She said the male was in a corner on the ground and didn't move when she walked into the pen.
She said she came back Saturday about noon and he was dead already.
Other than the large piece of bread everything else was normal.
Could he have somehow gotten that bread stuck in his throat and that would have cause his death?

thanks
gary

 

[KsKingBee]

Not likely the bread unless it got lodged in his airway. The necropsy should tell you if that was the problem.

I know that some people use a dewormer like Safeguard for cocci but it would be much better if you use sulfadimethoxine instead.