My Serama Died over the weekend, can anyone look at the images and tell me possibly how?

[plumtheserma]

I would recommend if you ever have a loss, to keep the body cold, but not frozen and to get a necropsy through your state vet as soon as possible. That is the only and best way to know what happened. I have no experience with Seramas, but know they can be delicate birds that may not tolerate low temperatures.

Thank you for your input. luckily, We live in northern cali and the temps right now are 60 degrees during the day. At night it drops to low 50's. The day he died the temp was around 66 degrees with no wind. Seramas can handle low 40's and some even in the high 30's. I would never let him be in that kind of cold though. if it ever hits below 40 he would be inside the main house. He has been thru 3 winters thus far and was A ok. We have a blanket we put over his cage at night as well as a insulated garage. Since I can see the paleness in his skin from 2/16 when it was bright red to 3/6 when it was pale white (and its warmer now then it was back in Feb it looks like circulation issue with heart. This is to my first serama we have had as his siblings all died. I also suspect the breeder gave us a bad batch of chicks and may not have known it. His three siblings all died suddenly as well in thier first month of life and he was left alone. Now he can see them again I suppose. Its not easy though my daughter was devastated as she was hoping to have another 3-5 years with him.

 

[Sammster]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

 

[Eggcessive]

@plumtheserma You have an excellent state vet lab in 4 locations in CA. They do a very thorough necropsy for $25, up to 2 a year, and they will send a prepaid overnight shipping label if you are too far from the lab.

 

[Loving my girls]

Oh ok I understand now, and I really don’t know. One of the other members mentioned the breed has a short life span, maybe that’s it. I can’t think of anything else except the possibility of a genetic neurological disorder, maybe ?
Be brave and enjoy your hens,
Hugz

 

[Stephine]

I think it’s impossible to tell without a necropsy. Could be heart failure, could be parasites, could be organ failure from malnutrition (if he didn’t get properly formulated feed and had no free ranging time), tumors, lots of things. So sorry, he was a cutie.

 

[plumtheserma]

Oh ok I understand now, and I really don’t know. One of the other members mentioned the breed has a short life span, maybe that’s it. I can’t think of anything else except the possibility of a genetic neurological disorder, maybe ?
Be brave and enjoy your hens,
Hugz

Thank you!

 

[plumtheserma]

I think it’s impossible to tell without a necropsy. Could be heart failure, could be parasites, could be organ failure from malnutrition (if he didn’t get properly formulated feed and had no free ranging time), tumors, lots of things. So sorry, he was a cutie.

Thank you, yes he was pretty different from my normal hens. Hence we got attached to him pretty fast vs our flock. These breeds are real fun to have but that life span I suppose you really have to take into count. It they were 10 years the great but from my research it looks like 1-5 years is the avg and that's hard because right when you get attached and really enjoy them POOF!!

 

[plumtheserma]

I know I may be beating the horse dead but can a veteran tell me If i were to catch my seramas illness earlier on and was able to take him to a vet and they did say it was a heart or liver issue is that pretty much fatal or could something be done to stop it from getting worse and he could have been saved. From what I have read on google for heart and liver issues there is nothing that can be done. Of course its google so I will ask here.

I ask this question because If this happens again to another flock member I will know what to expect.

 

[Silkiebegins]

His comb looks like it has a disease and the comb looks frost bitten. coccidiosis is a parasite from what I remember.