Sick Rooster - Unbalanced, One Eye Closed, Not eating well

Hey there my Rooster El Fonzo has come down with something. 3 Days ago after being "cooped" up with this blizzard my rooster was visibly ill. He was having alot of trouble keeping his balance, he was stumbling around like he was dizzy and often when he would lean over to get something off the ground he would fall over. He still has energy as he could make the 1ft+ jump back into the coop however he was dragging his feet a little when he walked and seemed to be clenching his feet some like he was perched on a stick.

I separated him immediately and moved him indoors to keep him warm. He does not make a whole lot of effort to eat or drink but when hope his mouth and stick scrambled eggs, meal worms, and regular food in his mouth he happily eats it. He will make some attempts to peck at the meal worms but his lack of balance especially when he leans over make it hard for him. He spends most of the time just standing up straight, when he moves he is unbalanced. His poops are white / bright green. He keeps his left eye closed all the time unless he is really startled

What I have done:

Isolated
I injected him with 1.2cc of Tylan 50 antibiotics for the past 3 days
Hard fed him scrambled eggs, and layer food
Have been administering a prescription probiotic


What has happened:

Pretty much nothing, he seems to be just as I found him 3 days ago. He remains with one eye closed and relying on me to feed him. His comb is a little darker on some tips but nothing too bad and his vent is pretty clear all things considered.


I am going to give him some fenbendazole in case its bugs but i doubt it with how rapidly the illness came on.


I dont have the money for a vet,

The bright green droppings can be from eating grass OR can indicate worms, parasites or illness. Have you checked his breathing? Do you hear a rattle or wheeze? is their any sneezing or coughing involved? Any foul smell coming off him? Have you checked his Ears for any sign of infection? Ear issues can cause Balance issues as well.If he has NONO of these things I mentioned or any other symptoms you might want to try a very good multivitamin for poultry. I say this from my own experience. I've had birds (WITHOUT any respiratory issues) stumble, fall over, and even become unable to walk due to a vitamin defiency.One thing does concorn me though. You mentioned his Eye was swollen shut? That leads me to believe the respiratory system and or ears might be involved. Give him a good check and let us know if their is any more symptoms. When was the last time he was wormed? Maybe a few more clues could help us figure out what is going on with him. Maybe a picture would help too. one more question. How does the other eye look? is it cloudy? look at the pupil, is it shaped normally? Has he been vaccinated for Mareks disease? I'm sorry I can't be more helpful right now but if you can give a few answers maybe i/ we, can be of more help. best wishes.also, if it is a respiratory type illness, it's likely viral this is probably why the antibiotics are not helping. if it's not respiratory, or a vitamin defiency, I might be concerned about Mareks disease. Especially with the clenching feet and stumbling.Take a look online about Mareks disease and compare his symptoms. This just might be what's going on.

realsis said:

The bright green droppings can be from eating grass OR can indicate worms, parasites or illness. Have you checked his breathing? Do you hear a rattle or wheeze? is their any sneezing or coughing involved? Any foul smell coming off him? Have you checked his Ears for any sign of infection? Ear issues can cause Balance issues as well.If he has NONO of these things I mentioned or any other symptoms you might want to try a very good multivitamin for poultry. I say this from my own experience. I've had birds (WITHOUT any respiratory issues) stumble, fall over, and even become unable to walk due to a vitamin defiency.One thing does concorn me though. You mentioned his Eye was swollen shut? That leads me to believe the respiratory system and or ears might be involved. Give him a good check and let us know if their is any more symptoms. When was the last time he was wormed? Maybe a few more clues could help us figure out what is going on with him. Maybe a picture would help too. one more question. How does the other eye look? is it cloudy? look at the pupil, is it shaped normally? Has he been vaccinated for Mareks disease? I'm sorry I can't be more helpful right now but if you can give a few answers maybe i/ we, can be of more help. best wishes.also, if it is a respiratory type illness, it's likely viral this is probably why the antibiotics are not helping. if it's not respiratory, or a vitamin defiency, I might be concerned about Mareks disease. Especially with the clenching feet and stumbling.Take a look online about Mareks disease and compare his symptoms. This just might be what's going on.

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Thanks so much for your reply!

Breathing is normal and he has no sneezing or wheezing or coughing what so ever. No foul odor either, even his vent is really clean. I have never checked ears before, I will look into how to do this and check his ears.

The multivitamin might be the problem, I assume most quality layer food has everything they need however over the past month my 3 chickens have almost stopped eating there layer food all of the sudden, not exactly sure what supplementary food is but they went from going through it in a couple weeks to having it still almost full after 4. Odd considering its winter now and there is less for them to find around the coop/run. I was concerned at first however until Mr. Rooster got sick none of them had dropped any weight or showed any signs of a problem (the other 2 are still fine).

It has probably been about 4-5 months since I have treated with fenbendazole for parasites so I began treatment today.

He is eating on his own now, I put a scrambled egg in with him and when I came back an hour later it was all gone. I put some mealworms in there and he was interested in their movement and tried pecking at them while laying down but was not ever successful.


Concerning the eye, swollen was the wrong word, he just keeps it shut. When he opens it looks perfectly normal, both eyes look normal, I have attached pictures

Eye he keeps open:

Eye Shut

"Shut Eye Open"



Thanks!

his one eye does look bright. Try a good poultry vitamin for a bit. with mine it took awhile to recover. mine went from not being able to walk to normal in about a month with the vitamins. I was feeding commercial grower at the time as when this happened they were young. I figured the food had all the vitamins they needed but I guess that wasn't the case. I switched to organic and haven't had any more defiency. I also now supplement a vitamin (multi) once a month.I really hate to mention this but if he does not improve with the vitamins, and he has no respiratory issues, and he still can't walk it could be Mareks disease that's got him. Do you know if he has had a vaccine for Mareks? Usually it can present itself with loss of balance, stiff or odd gate, inability to walk, curled toes, legs sticking straight out. It's really hard to say without a definite test but take a look online at Mareks disease and see what YOU think. You can see him walk better than I. If it does happen to be Mareks, it does NOT mean your other birds will get symptoms too. However it DOES mean they will likely be carriers and you will want to make sure any new birds brought onto your property have the vaccine. lots of folks have Mareks in their flocks because it's latterly every where. it can even be carried in the wind. Do some reading on it, try the vitamins and then see how he does. I sure hope he improves!! keep me posted.

Dehydration or mild frostbite could be a problem that might affect his feet and balance. I would really try to get him to drink as much electrolyte vitamikn solution as he will, even adding some to a small portion of his feed to make it wet. Try feeding a little chopped egg or tuna also. Cold weather and snow can really be a problem.

Update:

Sorry for the delay in updating.

So El Fonzo has made progress, he is no longer in isolation and is no longer as unbalanced and is fine to eating and drinking well on his own. His droppings are back to regular verysus the electric green they were for days. However things are not all dandy, the eye that he was keeping closed that looked fine when he opened it (wasnt swollen or anything just kept it shut but when he opened it it looked perfect), well it is now very very swollen.

here is a video of him when he was still isolated and very unbalanced (this was about a week ago):

Since then he has gotten better in all reguards except his now swollen eye:

Pics of his good eye:


Pics of his swollen eye:





I ran him through 3 days of Tylan 50 Antibiotic 1.5 cc injections a week and a half ago but decided to start him on a 5 day course...he had his 3rd injection today.


Any ideas!?

His comb looks like it is discolored, maybe frostbite. That is what I had wondered about that was affecting his feet, but they look okay. The Tylan should have taken care of the swollen eye if it was from mycoplasma (MG.) Coryza is another thing that can cause eye swelling and sinus infection, and most people say that it has a rotten odor. Sulmet and sulfadimethoxine are good to treat that. I would try to remove the pus from his eye by trying to pressing, cleaning it with QTips, saline, and even manicure tools or tweezers may be necessary. If you get the pus out, the eye may start to heal, plus some Terramycin eye ointment or Vetericyn eye gel could be used in the eye. There are several threads here about "removing pus from an eye" if you do a search at the box at the top of this page. I will try to post some later.

Eggcessive said:

His comb looks like it is discolored, maybe frostbite. That is what I had wondered about that was affecting his feet, but they look okay. The Tylan should have taken care of the swollen eye if it was from mycoplasma (MG.) Coryza is another thing that can cause eye swelling and sinus infection, and most people say that it has a rotten odor. Sulmet and sulfadimethoxine are good to treat that. I would try to remove the pus from his eye by trying to pressing, cleaning it with QTips, saline, and even manicure tools or tweezers may be necessary. If you get the pus out, the eye may start to heal, plus some Terramycin eye ointment or Vetericyn eye gel could be used in the eye. There are several threads here about "removing pus from an eye" if you do a search at the box at the top of this page. I will try to post some later.

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Thanks for the reply, I just gave him his 4th injection and the eye is certainly not improving, maybe gotten a little more swollen. Other than the eye he seems to be doing just fine, I did smell his eye are and smelled pretty normal to me. I will go ahead and treat his eye to the best of my abilities with the ointments you suggested. I will look further into a sinus infection but I would expect more discharge if he had a sinus problem. Until the eye got super swollen a couple days ago he had no discharge of any kind, now the eye is starting to ooze.

Thanks again.

I also have noticed that his comb is looking more discolored and he now has several raised bubble blisters on his comb. I am thinking that the frostbite on his comb has gotten infected. What is the best course of treatment for this short of going to the vet to have them cut out the bad parts.


Just ordered some Vetericyn eye gel

His comb will be very painful, so don't handle it, and certainly don't break blisters. Vetericyn spray is good for treating the comb, or leave it alone. It should heal eventually although it may be rounded.