Does anyone have any idea what might have happened as I found my roo deceased when I came home

[BigMacD]

So today I came home and found my Jersey Giant rooster dead. When I left for work this morning I fed the flock and everything seemed normal. When I found him I noticed a big sore on the bottom of his foot that I'm assuming was bumblefoot although there was no plug but the toe was swollen. I wasn't aware of any infection although about a week and a half ago I had an issue where some kids were throwing rocks at my chickens and struck the rooster he had a limp for a few days but seemed to be doing fine. When I checked on him after he was hit with the rock I did not see anything wrong other than the limp and not wanting to put weight down on his leg and after about 2 days he was moving around fine and by the 3rd day there was no limp. Today was the coldest day we had in a while so I left their heat lamp on because I knew it was going to be cold so I don't think the cold has anything to do with it since he was a very large rooster and nothing was wrong with the rest of the flock. Also I haven't let them out since the whole rock issue and they were used to coming out everyday so I'm not sure if that could've caused him to be overly stressed. There's plenty of room in their run but they went from being able to roam everyday to staying in the run. Could he have gotten a bad infection that spread extremely fast that could have caused sudden death. Has anyone else ever had something like this happen?

 

[StinkyAcres]

Any sign that he might have flown up in a panic and hit something and broken his neck? I'm sorry you have to deal with this after dealing with those kids.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Are you sure the kids didn't come back and finish the job?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

How cold was it? Generally fully-feathered chickens don't need supplemental heat.

 

[Squawkers]

some kids were throwing rocks at my chickens

Little brats! Some kids make me so mad.

 

[CoopBoots]

Oh, how awful. Do you know who their parents might be?! Rock throwing is enough to go have a word or write a letter regardless what finally happened to your poor rooster. He was already injured! They simply cannot do that to your animals on your property. I'm so sorry.

 

[Frizz Chickooster]

So today I came home and found my Jersey Giant rooster dead. When I left for work this morning I fed the flock and everything seemed normal. When I found him I noticed a big sore on the bottom of his foot that I'm assuming was bumblefoot although there was no plug but the toe was swollen. I wasn't aware of any infection although about a week and a half ago I had an issue where some kids were throwing rocks at my chickens and struck the rooster he had a limp for a few days but seemed to be doing fine. When I checked on him after he was hit with the rock I did not see anything wrong other than the limp and not wanting to put weight down on his leg and after about 2 days he was moving around fine and by the 3rd day there was no limp. Today was the coldest day we had in a while so I left their heat lamp on because I knew it was going to be cold so I don't think the cold has anything to do with it since he was a very large rooster and nothing was wrong with the rest of the flock. Also I haven't let them out since the whole rock issue and they were used to coming out everyday so I'm not sure if that could've caused him to be overly stressed. There's plenty of room in their run but they went from being able to roam everyday to staying in the run. Could he have gotten a bad infection that spread extremely fast that could have caused sudden death. Has anyone else ever had something like this happen?

I had something similar happen where I left in the morning and my rooster was fine but when I came home he was lying on the ground dead. There were no signs of injury or sickness that could have caused this, just death…