Roo died while trying to clean him up

[Hen Palace]

I am not sure if this has happened to anyone or not. I had a Roo die on me while cleaning his poopy butt. My husband was holding him and I was cleaning the dried poop with warm water and he started convulsing let out a crow and died. Has anyone ever had this happen? He was about a year old and very healthy boy. I feel terrible did I do this by trying to clean him up?

Very curious if anyone has ever experienced this.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I've not experienced this myself but if he had a poopy butt there could have been an underlying issue which lead to his death.

I'm sorry you lost him

 

[DaFlockinLeader]

Idk. Maybe stress from the whole cleaning process and holding him down and what not and just had a heart attack? Not sure but I don't see why he would have a poopy butt either at a year. Could of been a more serious problem like they said above me ^ sorry I can't help as much though. But chickens do sometimes just up and die for no reason at all (atleast that's what they say anyway) take it to a vet or something ask him if he would like some practice on a surgery or something and see if he could find out why.

 

[TwoCrows]

I agree with both of the above posts. Either there was some underlying issue, or the stress of being held and cleaned caused him to have a heart attack. If he had a heart condition, his blood pressure would have shot up enough to shut his heart down. Some birds do not handle stress well and if not accustom to being held can go into shock. The poopy butt itself could have been an internal yeast/fungal infection of the intestinal tract called Vent Gleet. Any internal infection whether it be bacterial or fungal can weaken them enough to kill them. Only a necropsy on the bird will truly tell why he died.

I am so sorry.

 

[Hen Palace]

Thank you everyone, very strange I do not understand it. He was a Barred Feather foot Cochin Roo he was quite fluffy and would get messy, so I thought I would clean some of the dried pooh off. I do not think I will do that agin, very upsetting day.

 

[DaFlockinLeader]

Don't let this experience ruin it and scare you. You still gotta care for your flock. It's wasn't your fault. Anything could of set it off he was just getting close to his time and that just so happen to be what did it. Did the dirty butt just start overnight or has it been awhile?

 

[Hen Palace]

It's been a while and it was very red so I thought I need to clean it because it's not good to have the acid from the pooh attached to his rear end. I have another one but I did not try to clean him up after that today. I worm them and give them yogurt routinely to keep them healthy with good bacteria. They have so many feathers and the pooh just attaches so I was trying to get it clean.i have wyondottes and Easter eggers as well and they never get the poopy butt issue. These guys are so fluffy it just attaches to them. I hope there is not an issue with them.

 

[DaFlockinLeader]

You should still try to bath him and try your best. Either he passes away like the last one (doubtfully i think the one just had a heart problem) or he passes away later from the infection in pain (hopefully not) or take him to the vet if it is a pet. If not you could cull it and just end it all but a poopy but isn't good either way and you need to do something to help it. Here is a link to the vent gleet idk if it's something along those lines.

http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/12/vent-gleet-prevention-and-treatment-html/

 

[guineapeeps]

I've had this happen to me once, but it was a Guinea fowl keet. It seemed to be perfectly fine before cleaning it up, but after gently wiping it's bum off with a moistened rag, it convulsed and died. I'm still not sure what happened, but I have wiped up others since that time and never had any further issues!