Dropped dead

[Penny]

I walked into the coop this morning and there is a 12 weeks old rooster laying under the roost. Wings folded, tail splayed a little, no disturbance in the shavings under him. Just dropped dead from the roost as far as I can tell. Was very healthy yesterday. Checked the body over and no sign of mites, lice, or any damage, and still a good weight for his size. Heart attack maybe?

Anyone else have something like that happen?

[WLLady]

oh yes, i've had this happen....it's heart for sure. some of them are just not wired quite right....and they heart attack and fall off the roost in the dark. it's "affectionately" called "flip over disease"....commonly you find them on their backs....no struggle in sight if they are ground sleepers, or find them under the roost without any sign of struggle or signs that anything was wrong....
sorry to hear you lost one. it usually seems to happen about 12 weeks (as the testosterone is starting to surge) and again just before 20 weeks if it's going to happen. then again about 4-5 years old -these ones get the purple combs first and then quite often go into a corner and pass at the older age.

[Penny]

oh yes, i've had this happen....it's heart for sure. some of them are just not wired quite right....and they heart attack and fall off the roost in the dark. it's "affectionately" called "flip over disease"....commonly you find them on their backs....no struggle in sight if they are ground sleepers, or find them under the roost without any sign of struggle or signs that anything was wrong....
sorry to hear you lost one. it usually seems to happen about 12 weeks (as the testosterone is starting to surge) and again just before 20 weeks if it's going to happen. then again about 4-5 years old -these ones get the purple combs first and then quite often go into a corner and pass at the older age.

Is is just roosters this happens to? Is it hereditary or follow in families? (I noticed my year old rooster, Alvin (this one's sire), had a purple comb yesterday morning but it was red again when I got home from work)

[WLLady]

nope, happens to boys and girls.....but more the boys than the girls for whatever reason. now if your older rooster is going purple combed and back to okay he's likely having sporadic heart issues....purple combs are a symptom of not enough oxygen in the blood. the comb turns purple because the hemoglobin is not carrying oxygen. hemoglobin is red when bound to oxygen....so the combs are red because of the high amount of blood vessels in them. so when they go purple they're oxygen starved....which means the blood isn't being oxygenated the way it should, which is like congestive heart failure in people.

[KimChick]

I found a hen dead in the coop a couple of weeks ago. No sign of trauma. My only guess is - because she was one of 6 new hens given to us, she did not adjust well, even after being separated from our flock for about 3 weeks with the other 5, then integrated. She either died because she wasn't eating, or because she was egg bound. We did not do an autopsy.

[TomK]

I am sure that i lost one of the older Rocks a few weeks back due to being egg bound...what can be done if they appear listless...walk a little oddly and the eggbound idea creeps in as a possible cause?

[Jaye]

An Epsom salts bath soak (AKA the spa treatment) sometimes helps. It helped our Twyla when she had trouble passing a lash egg.

[WLLady]

for egg binding i soak them in warm water to help relax the muscles-usually within a half hour or so of a soak they'll pass whatevers stuck. only issue is once they egg bind once they seem to get more prone to it....and i usually end up losing them eventually to it whether it's 6 months later or 3 years later....

[Killerbunny]

I found my Barred rocks especially prone to egg binding and prolapse maybe because they laid huge eggs?