What happened to my little roo?

[Nimby Chickens]

I found my cochin bantam roo, Fancy Pants, dead in the coop yesterday. I had noticed nothing wrong with him except a slight gasp when he breathed yesterday. He was acting normally otherwise and I figured he just inhaled a crumble.

I checked him thoroughly and I found lice or mites (not sure which yet) and he had pale wattles and a pale comb. I checked his throat for gapeworm - swabbed all around in there with a q-tip and got nothing.

I dusted his coop mates and coop with Sevin and watched for anyone breathing funny... no one acting weird. Does anyone have any idea what happened to Fancy Pants?

 

[teach1rusl]

So sorry about your little roo.

When there's really no change in behavior or obvious symptoms, it's almost impossible to tell why a chicken dies. Even an autopsy doesn't always reveal the answer. I've had an otherwise healthy young hen die while relaxing in a dustbathing area. He could have had a stroke, heart (or other organ) failure, hit a wall and broken his neck, etc.