My rooster looked great an hr ago but he just dropped dead.?

Question

I bought a pair of lakenvelder chickens 2 days ago so I've been checking on them frequently. They looked great, acted normal but my rooster suddenly died. I checked to see if it looked like he had been bitten or anything and I couldn't find anything. They are in a big cage for now until I get the coop finished this weekend. I've let them out to walk and scratch around....and they have plenty of air, clean water, food, and the temps are not too hot today. They are 4 months old. Any ideas what would cause him to just kill over?

Answer 1

You might call a vet.  They could maybe help you by phone.

Answer 2

was it hot outside if so maybe he had a stroke

Answer 3

Sad to hear this,Did your chickens travel a long distance ?any major weather changes ? these factors could add to the stress of moving.Day old chicks do very well when transported from one place to another so one would expect older birds to be more resilient.

New  set up can be disturbing but will not stress out a bird to this extent.one needs to keep a safe & comfortable cage or coop ready to recieve new birds,a drink of electrolytes  or just plain glucose solution is said to ease stress,also a good idea to ask what feed / grain they have been used to,keep to this & make very gradual changes if you need to.

Answer 4

Chickens aren't the most hardy of animals. He could have gotten heat stroke, gotten scared by something, heart attack, ran into a wall, bitten by something that didn't tear the skin but snapped his neck, etc.

  They also do better in larger groups- the less you have, the more nervous they are, and the more stressed out. I would get at least 4-6 of them to make them more comfortable and less likely to die.

Answer 5

I agree its hard to tell exactly what he could of died from. My baby chicks two of them just died and i got them 3 days ago it was heartbreaking to see. But Many of the chickens deaths are unexplained and just you could call a vet.

Answer 6

some of our chooks used to die like that too. we found out later that there is a common bird disease called psittacosis. it attacks the liver and respiratory system.

the chook or bird was fine for days and the second last day of living it would be extra lively and energetic, then dead the next day. its so wierd hey.

look up this disease on the internet or in books, there is antibiotics for birds that have it.

sometimes our bantam chooks ate spiders (or some nasty insect) and it bit their throat as it went down, you could see the swelling.

anyway hope this info will help for future chooks and other birds.

Answer 7

Birds have a way of concealing sickness so that often we dont notice til it's too late. He may have been stressed from the trauma of the move etc or may have been sick before that, even if he seemed ok.

Just a thought?

I'm sorry he didn't make it.

Hope you can get another companion for your remaining chicken ASAP.