Woke up and He was Dead !!

[CHICKENLADY123]

We had a beautiful Buff Orpington Rooster. About 6 months old. Actually thought he was a she until he grew a comb and start crowing over-night. So we called him Butch.

Anyhow, he was big and healthy and very friendly. We kept him in an all enclosed coop with two hens. One night the dogs were barking like crazy. We tend to get raccoons and possums this time of year. After yelling at the dogs a couple of times, it settled down and we thought all was well.

I went out to feed the chickens and he was laying dead by the door. No wounds, cuts, nothing. The chickens have a little barn about 3x3 and covered that they go into every night. He was outside of it next to the door to exit the enclosed coop (on the inside). Nothing had gotten in, nor had he gotten out. Could he have been protecting his hens from the peering raccoons and his heart just given out ?? He was our biggest, healthiest looking rooster. Doesn't make sense. Any ideas ???

 

[DTchickens]

could be... may have died that morning coming off the roost. no telling. my dad has had roosters (perfectly healthy roosters) Fly up on the roost and fall down.. from heart attack,. never really know unless you have enough symptoms. or were there when it happened.. i had a rooster choke to death just yesterday. im assuming he choked on some sort of bug since he was fine after i fed. went in side for a hourish. and came back out.

-Daniel

 

[eeiko321]

well i guess an autopsy done on humans tell exactly how the person died and how they lived

too bad no one can peform this on pets....

 

[ams3651]

there are many posts on here of people who have done one. Maybe he flew up making a commotion to protect his girls and hit his head or something. Id say unless its disease you may not find anything as the cause.

 

[Morning Dove]

Quote:
Actually they do necropsies on animals, especially if there is disease involved. Check your local agricultural department. When I worked at a vet hospital our Agricultural department did our dead animal incineration, and I, being the only employee with a truck, got the honor of driving the dead animals to the incinerator. They also did necropsies, too, but it's expensive.

Dove

 

[luvmychicknkids]

We lost a beautiful, healthy roo some time ago and he looked perfect....no immediately visible injuries. Upon close inspection he had a small bite mark on his neck that you couldn't see by just looking, his feathers had to be moved away in order to even know it was there. I am so sorry you lost your boy. I know how heartbreaking it is.

 

[Adri]

I'm so sorry about your rooster. I know that veterinarians can perform autopsies but they are pretty costly, but if knowing is very important to you it may be worth doing.

On Sunday, we found one of our Polish roos with purple wattles and breathing very poorly. We put him into the garage and kept him warm and gave him food at water. He lived a few hours, but never recovered. Other than his breathing and his colour he was perfectly fine. We still aren't sure what happened, we had a house full of Thankgiving guests, some had been feeding too many treats and children had been playing close to the chicken yard. I suspect that he either choked on something, got his head stuck in the fence trying to get a stray treat, or his heart gave out during all of the excitement.

 

[JennsPeeps]

There's a sticky thread on either the emergencies or the predators thread on how to perform your own home necropsy.

I've never opened the thread (afraid of graphic pics).

 

[speckledhen]

I'm so sorry. I lost a healthy Barred Rock rooster this year to a drug reaction. He died in my arms after collapsing right in front of me. It's awful, but sometimes, they just have a heart attack and keel over.

 

[CHICKENLADY123]

The night prior I had grabbed a handful of the neighbor's "Pepper Tree" leaves and thrown it in their pen. I do this all the time with my goats. When he died I was afraid that maybe the leaves poisoned him. But none of the other hens or roos were affected.

One idea I did have was that our property is heavily infested with Black Widows. We have gotten used to it. Try to keep wood and piles of anything away from the house. I have been bitten and my dogs have been bitten, but nothing serious. Maybe as he was sleeping, one decided to get warm in his feathers and bit him. Has anyone experienced this ?