My Naked Neck roosters strange death

[Poultry man123]

My Naked neck rooster Augustus started to look sickly about 2 weeks ago but I thought nothing of it because he was a young energetic rooster but as time went on he started gasping for air and he turned purply blue the next day he died. do you have any ideas how he died?

 

[sloanbychoice]

Have you had any other losses recently?
Have you added any new birds recently?
Any change in location or feed or bedding?

 

[LaFleche]

Welcome to NYC @Poultry man123

Sorry you lost your naked neck.

How old was he?

Sometimes young seemingly healthy birds die of sudden death syndrome, a heart condition well known in the broiler industry.
But there are lots of other possible reasons, i.e. poisonous insects or snakes etc., or even gape worms in case your chickens have rather humid living conditions drinking from duck ponds snd puddles.

The best way to know the cause of his death would be by sending him in to your state vet lab for necropsy.

 

[Poultry man123]

he was 3.
We had no losses before his death but what you said about drinking from puddles and duck ponds could be true, there was a puddle/duck pond in his pen

 

[Poultry man123]

Have you had any other losses recently?
Have you added any new birds recently?
Any change in location or feed or bedding?

i did start using a mash feed.

 

[LaFleche]

he was 3.
We had no losses before his death but what you said about drinking from puddles and duck ponds could be true, there was a puddle/duck pond in his pen

This hints to gape worms. So deworming thoroughly at least twice a year seems the sensible thing to do.

But it might as well have been consuming mouldy/off mash feed.

As older/good roosters will usually leave all the feed for the hens to stuff themselves and then just eat the leftovers, this might result in consuming feed that has turned already mouldy/off.
Pellets or crumbles can start to sour and mould within a few hours after getting wet.