Question about my Roosters Death

[pwand]

HI, a few days ago , I was cutting out lice eggs of my rooster bottom. I treated all my chickens several time for lice. So I had him upside down cutting them out, within probably 25sec or so,his body was moving in an odd way, I went to raise him up, he had turned all blue, he had brought up vomit out of his nose and mouth. I tried anything possible to try to save him, he basically suffocated. Has anybody have this experience. Would there been any way to have saved him. My daughter says that they can only breath out of there nose. I'm not sure if he was ok to start with, we've had him for two years, he tried to crow and it sounded horrible, he probably hasn't tried for over a year, he was very clumsy, I feel that he might have been a bit of to some level. The information that I read about roosters didn't match him much, he was a hog when it came to eating, he didn't share with the hens. He never called to them when there was food. He would sit like he wasn't always feeling well. He was a Cochin buff, beautiful rooster. I will miss him. I feel bad, its a since less death. I called a feed store, she told me that the powder would kill the eggs. If I knew that I wouldn't have bothered to cut them off. Now he is gone. Any answers would be great or ideas. Thanks Emily

 

[SpottedCrow]

Because a chicken's lungs are close to their spines, turning one on it's back for extended periods of time can cause them to suffocate.
I'm sorry for the loss of your bird.

 

[GloriaH]

If he had just had something to eat of drink they will assperate (sp) if you hold him on his back or upside down. I only grab my chicken by the feet when I am trying to catch them then I always hold then right side up.

 

[rooster-red]

I had an experience with this 2 weeks ago with our barred rock.
I had picked him up and set his feet up on my hand for him to stand there (something he has done many times) he stood there for a minute, my fingers wrapped around his toes to steady him. he dived forward and I still had a grip on his feet, so he ended up turning upside down.
I didn't think much about that since I used this position to force him to submit when he got agressive, had done it well over 50 times before.

He gasped and I turned him upright, but he couldn't breathe. He turned purple, I franticlly checked his throat for an obstruction, none there.
He turned blue straining and stretching his neck trying to get air. I set him on the ground, patted his back to see if I could help him, he turned darker blue and I just knew I was about to see him die right in front of me and there was nothing I could do to help.
By this time he was flopping around and I was watching in horror, feeling helpless while he was dying. He flopped over on his back and tried to curl his neck up toward his chest. I put my hand under his head to try to comfort him in the last seconds of his life, and helped support his neck as he brought his head toward his chest.
He gasped a breath in, then another, then he was breathing hard, and his color rapidly came back!

I slowly turned him upright and he stood up, stayed in that spot for about 2 minutes, then he began to walk around. I watched him very closely, he wasn't staggering and he was breathing like normal again.

I continued to watch him, and after about 10 minutes he mounted a hen!
At that point I thought he might be ok.

He's had no problems at all since then.

We got VERY lucky.
That feeling of helplesness is just indescribable.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

 

[pwand]

Thanks to everyone replying, I really appreciate it. It is horrible watching them die, I tried everything, I think he was probably a bit farther gone when I raised him up, he had vomit out his nose and his mouth, he probably wouldn't have had a chance, his head just flopped over, its very frustrating, he was very beautiful. We live in an area that were not suppose to have chickens, however, my daughter really wanted them, I never had any at all before, so I got hocked, we started off with 4 red rock chicks, which happily went camping with us for the whole summer, we had paid for a camping site for that summer, the chickens came about a month later, I have to say they enjoyed going. We loaded them up in a dog kennel and headed of to camping. The next year we got two Cochin chicks, not knowing what we were going to have. We thought we would chance it crossing our fingers for two hens. It took awhile to figure out if one was a rooster or not, he wasn't crowing, he started growing spurs so we knew what we got, its like he knew he wasn't to crow, he tried a few times, which sounded horrible and hasn't crowed for a long time. We lucked out. Now it saddens me to think he is gone. He was unique in his own ways. Thank you for sharing.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm sorry for your loss, pwand. Lee, I always notice that Hawkeye has trouble breathing if he is held anything except completely upright. This is a very good warning for everyone in handling their birds.

 

[rooster-red]

To make things worse, this was Kyles roo.
If he had died I would have gotten another barred rock, but I couldn't have replaced him.

 

[speckledhen]

I can imagine the terror you were feeling. Whew, I'm so glad Buster is okay! We learn by experience, I guess, and just hope the consequences aren't too awful.