We found our rooster, Cogburn (I know, I know) dead in the run on Friday. He was a 5 1/2 month old Buff Orp. He has been doing just fine with no obvious signs of any problems. We had noticed that over the past week of so he had been shaking his head from time to time but we could find nothing wrong. I had taken out his and his 10 girls favorite treat of oatmeal, yoghurt mixed with a few drops of poly-vi-sol (no iron). I went out about an hour later after a brief thunderstorm has passed to find him dead in the run. He was still warm. His neck was extraordinarily floppy when I picked him up but I figured this was normal. He was our first death.
I suspected that I had poisoned our chickens with some bad yoghurt or something but the girls were and remain just fine.
We did not find any signs of injury or disease. We did notice what looked like two small red balls, for lack of a better description, outside his vent. We cannot find any photos of what a normal rooster's vent should look like however, we had never noticed them before.
Does anyone have an idea what these might be and if its normal? We miss Cogburn terribly and just can't figure out what might have happened. He had an attitude but he was a lot of fun. Now we are concerned about the rest of the flock.
I suspected that I had poisoned our chickens with some bad yoghurt or something but the girls were and remain just fine.
We did not find any signs of injury or disease. We did notice what looked like two small red balls, for lack of a better description, outside his vent. We cannot find any photos of what a normal rooster's vent should look like however, we had never noticed them before.
Does anyone have an idea what these might be and if its normal? We miss Cogburn terribly and just can't figure out what might have happened. He had an attitude but he was a lot of fun. Now we are concerned about the rest of the flock.
