Peacock suddenly dies within 12 hours :(

Max0815

Songster
7 Years
Jul 13, 2016
64
79
147
Arizona USA
One of our juvenile peacocks suddenly died today this morning. He was completely fine yesterday, and able to fly onto his perch, but today as I went out to let my flock out he was just on the ground, dead.

His head was resting on his back, he was in a resting position on the ground. No slime in his eyes, I mean, he was perfectly fine. I don't know how to perform an autopsy, and I'd like to bury him as quickly as possible. But this death came so sudden and so quick that is just completely baffles me.

He was around half a year old. We hadn't wormed him, but we were about to. In the past month he had some kind of incident where he possibly ate a cockroach that had bug spray on them, or developed some disease, but he seemingly recovered from that after, completely fine, after we fed him activated charcoal, amprolium, and amoxicillin.

I am just baffled. There was nothing that could have killed him so suddenly, going from completely normally during the evening, to just... dead, the next morning. Do you guys have any idea as to why he died? I wish to prevent anything like this in the future. Thank you for your help!
 
I am very sorry for your loss. :hugs There are couple diseases that can cause this so I strongly suggest that you do a necropsy or have your state lab do one.
 
Most likely it flushed and broke its neck. They can become startled or even roughhousing and hurt themselves. Feel the neck spine bringing your thumb and finger down from the head and feel for a loose spot. Broken necks will be loose even after rigor mortis sets in. You can also slit the neck skin and look for blood clotting in the muscle in that area.
 
@casportpony There are diseases that can kill a bird from 11pm to 8am... that's... is there any way to prevent them? What are some examples?

As for the necropsy, I find it hard to know that my bird is going to just get cut open. I prefer to just bury him. 😞
 
@casportpony There are diseases that can kill a bird from 11pm to 8am... that's... is there any way to prevent them? What are some examples?

As for the necropsy, I find it hard to know that my bird is going to just get cut open. I prefer to just bury him. 😞
Cocci can kill a young bird in a short amount of time but usually it is because the owner did not notice it was looking off for a day or two.
 
@KsKingBee I did it, and his neck is perfectly intact, oddly.

I do remember that every time it gets to around 7pm he usually would fly up to the high point of my backyard, the roof cover of a custom swing set, but yesterday he did not do this.
 
@KsKingBee I did it, and his neck is perfectly intact, oddly.

I do remember that every time it gets to around 7pm he usually would fly up to the high point of my backyard, the roof cover of a custom swing set, but yesterday he did not do this.
I wish I could help more but unless a head/neck injury then only a necropsy is going to answer your questions.
 

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