My rooster died suddenly

[cdmadaio]

Yesterday, my year old silkie rooster died suddenly. We have a person who takes care of the property when I'm not there and they didn't clean the coop this time so it was very dirty. He found my rooster Sonny had died and was laying at the bottom of the coop. There were no signs of trauma but a few weeks back he had some small hard lumps under his rooster collar. I (guess I wasn't a responsible chicken keeper) thought it was an ingrown hair and tried to get it out, I made a pinhole but nothing was there. Yesterday he died, but appeared perfectly healthy. Does anyone know what killed him

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A poultry diagnostic lab will know but we don't. It could be dozens of things. Over about 10 years and hundreds of roosters, I've had 3 die suddenly. One dropped dead before my eyes. A necropsy showed heart attack in all cases. Urolithiasis from excessive calcium can kill quickly. As can Marek's and a dozen other diseases. Banging the head can break the neck and on a silkie, can kill by damaging the vaulted skull. What are your roosters fed?

You can find your poultry labs from this list.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/nahln/downloads/all_nahln_lab_list.pdf

 

[cdmadaio]

A poultry diagnostic lab will know but we don't. It could be dozens of things. Over about 10 years and hundreds of roosters, I've had 3 die suddenly. One dropped dead before my eyes. A necropsy showed heart attack in all cases. Urolithiasis from excessive calcium can kill quickly. As can Marek's and a dozen other diseases. Banging the head can break the neck and on a silkie, can kill by damaging the vaulted skull. What are your roosters fed?

You can find your poultry labs from this list.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/nahln/downloads/all_nahln_lab_list.pdf

We feed them cracked corn, some layer pellets and some mealworms. Sometimes, table scraps

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Does that diet refer to the roosters or all of your birds?
Is that 90% cracked corn and 10% layer pellets?
10% cracked corn and 90% layer pellets?
50% cracked corn and 50% layer pellets?

If he was fed layer feed most of his life, it was possibly kidney damage.
If he was fed predominantly corn most of his life, there were probably other nutritional deficiencies.

 

[cdmadaio]

Does that diet refer to the roosters or all of your birds?
Is that 90% cracked corn and 10% layer pellets?
10% cracked corn and 90% layer pellets?
50% cracked corn and 50% layer pellets?

If he was fed layer feed most of his life, it was possibly kidney damage.
If he was fed predominantly corn most of his life, there were probably other nutritional deficiencies.

Its usually about 10% mealworms, 60% cracked corn and 20% layer pellets

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks for posting that.
So the problem wasn't too much calcium.
Layer feed is about 4% calcium (too high for roosters), however that is offset by corn which is nearly devoid at about 0.01%.
Regarding protein, your saving grace is the mealworms. That is bringing the protein up to acceptable levels.
I might caution that corn is already the primary ingredient in a complete poultry ration. Making corn about 70% of their diet. IMO, that is way too much of a single grain.
By replacing a nutritionally complete feed with that much corn, likely may be causing some nutritional deficiencies of a number of vitamins and minerals.
Do you have layer hens or growing chicks on that diet?

Have you sent the rooster to the poultry lab for necropsy?

 

[cdmadaio]

Thanks for posting that.
So the problem wasn't too much calcium.
Layer feed is about 4% calcium (too high for roosters), however that is offset by corn which is nearly devoid at about 0.01%.
Regarding protein, your saving grace is the mealworms. That is bringing the protein up to acceptable levels.
I might caution that corn is already the primary ingredient in a complete poultry ration. Making corn about 70% of their diet. IMO, that is way too much of a single grain.
By replacing a nutritionally complete feed with that much corn, likely may be causing some nutritional deficiencies of a number of vitamins and minerals.
Do you have layer hens or growing chicks on that diet?

Have you sent the rooster to the poultry lab for necropsy?

I'm sorry this is so late. We couldn't send him in for a necropsy because he started to decompose too fast. In the 90 degree heat he... well you know. These are full grown chickens and he was over a year old. Our growing pullers we have on cracked corn, growers mix, and ar just starting to take them off chick starter