My rooster not even one year old died last night, which was devastating to my husband and me. He originally started out with sneezing, shaking his head, and sounding congested. After a couple of days he has issues even crowing. We took him to the vet who stated it was most likely a respiratory infection and he was put on some medicine and he gained his crowing back and seemed to be getting better. We finished the medicine as instructed and then within two days afterwards he started to deteriorate again where he was sneezing still, but it also seemed that when he would bend over to eat his strawberries that he has some issues, but I once again I just thought he was congested. We got a refill on the medication and yesterday he did not crow. My husband was there when it happened, but he said he went out there to give him his snack and medicine and all of a sudden he started what appeared to be choking. My husband looked up how to do the Heimlich on a chicken and started performing the procedure noting that he saw nothing in his throat, but his waddle started to turn purple. He said he tried all he could, but could not save him. I feel guilty because I feel like I could of done more since I was not reading the symptoms. I guess I am wondering if anyone feels this was due to an infection or possibly something else? Also, any suggestions? Shortly after we took him to our house one of our other chickens was sneezing and we always keep the VETRX respiratory natural medicine on hand, which we gave her and she seems fine now. None of the others seem to be having any symptoms. We have been keeping a close eye.
P.S. We recently had a rat problem that we believe we have taken care of, but believe that could be an attributing factor if he caught something from them?
P.S. We recently had a rat problem that we believe we have taken care of, but believe that could be an attributing factor if he caught something from them?
Last edited: