Why my beloved pet rooster died

[sarfpop]

Dear all,

my pet rooster just passed away yesterday and i was hoping i can get some answers here why. Have had it kept indoors for 6 years and am quite attached to it.

- It's a Bantam chicken breed
- We bathe it every week
- Its crown just keeps growing till one day it just started festering and my mom cleans the wounds with some antibacterial cream daily, but recently the bacteria started to "eat up" the cells and i could tell the crown started drying up and shrinking. but i wasnt able to get penicillin over the counters.
- We feed it with organic rice, dried corn bits, fresh corn and rice pellets, fresh water
- Recently it started to lose its sight and we thought he wasnt able to find food himself so we fed him fresh corn one by one into his beak
- He used to respond when we called to him but in recent weeks he continued to snooze really deep and no reaction when we called him
- He stopped his daily crowings and is more sleepy and lerthagic
- He began to be limp on the legs
- the day before he died, he couldnt really stand properly and refused to swallow although he tried to peck on the food
- in the end we fed him cereal with milk, as well as fresh water separately through a straw down his beak
- felt his crop, it was kind of swollen and very soft to the touch
- the day he died, he couldnt open his eyes, he couldnt stand at all. totally limp.
- he then started to have spasms puking whatever we fed him the day before, undigested.
- then no more breathing.

im so upset he was one of my fav pets ever.

Appreciate some possible diagnosis, just wanted to know if i could hv saved him.

thanks...

 

[chickenbottom]

oh im so so sorry i cant really help you but

i know its not a happy post but i just wanted to welcome you also what about his droppings were they bloody did they look wormy or anything did he get chicken food the stuff made for him has he ever been wormed these are the questions most will ask it also sounds like he had a sour crop

 

[sarfpop]

thanks chickenbottom for the welcome...just wished i had found this site sooner!

Mine is an indoor rooster (i keep it within the apartment im living in) so it doesnt get to eat soil or worms or anything it can find in the garden. but my mom picks up some pockets of sand from the garden with some small stones for it to swallow sometimes to aid digestion.

Droppings (in the final days) are watery, sometimes milky, sometimes greenish milky....

what's a sour crop and what does it do to the chicken?

 

[chickenbottom]

the crop is the mass on basicly the bubble thing at the end of the neck usually shifts to the right on the bird. its kind of hard to figure how he passed but this is what sour and impacted are wouldnt happen to have a picture of the crown would you? sometimes pictures help even if it was at the early stage

Impacted = hard, solid mass, no bad smell
Sour = sloshy, pendulous, bad smell from beak

 

[chickenbottom]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=196991
this is about sour crop from one of the members
WARNING CONTAINS PICTURES OF POO
http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[sarfpop]

Chickenbottom the links are so helpful. thank you so much. at least nw i have some idea of what might have happened.....*hugs*

 

[chickenbottom]

your welcome and again im sorry about your roo

 

[damselfish]

I'm sorry about your roo. Chickens do need protein. If it was only eating rice and corn, it may not have been getting enough. Corn and rice are considered treats or a supplement, not a main diet for chickens in general. Six years is a pretty long time anyway for a chicken, so you did well.

Please consider feeding the next one with chicken feed, which is mixed and balanced for what a chicken needs & may help it to stay with you longer. It sounds like you are an organically inclined person and there are organic feeds available.

The growing & festering comb thing (what you called crown, I think), sounds really mysterious, I don't know what that could have been.

In any case, welcome to BYC, there is tons of great information here.

Here is a link to chicken feed recipes if you desire to make your own, but you can definitely just buy chicken feed (not "scratch", which is the corn-type treats) if you prefer.
http://www.lionsgrip.com/recipes.html

 

[sarfpop]

thanks damselfish for the advice.

 

[Schultz]

Hi and welcome to BYC, I am sorry it is under these conditions and I am sorry you lost your beloved roo.
Not to step on the toes of the other 2 posters, to me it sounds a little deeper than that. I am no expert on diseases but there are 2 really good people on here that have been a lot of help to others. One is (username) Glenda L Heywood and I'm sorry, I can't remember the other person's name. Anyway, I know Glenda has a lot of good advice and many years experience, PM her if you want some answers. She is in California so give her a wile to answer. I hope you get the answers you need