Lethargic Roo, Droopy Comb, Lice

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FalconryGal

FalconryGal

Hatching
6 Years
Apr 22, 2013
5
0
7
I have a campine rooster almost 2 years old that has been wobbling about, acting lethargic, and has a bad case of lice. I've been treating with Sevin Dust, but the wobbling and lethargy started before that (a few weeks back). I found him outside of his normal run today, panting heavily and laying down with blood on him, probably from the other rooster. I brought him inside to cool down since it's 90+ here in Texas, and he's steadily improving. His comb over the past weeks has been drooping, none of the other chickens in his pen have this issue.

Is this from the lice or over heating or what? I've heard some people say do a fecal and other people suggest it's just the heat, but I'm not sure. Any ideas what may be causing this?
 
I had a turkey with similar symptoms and it turned out that the lice were just a symptom of Mareks. A fecal wouldn't be a bad idea though- its a cheap and easy way to rule out internal parasites.
 
Lice need to be re-treated every 10 days to get the eggs, and mites every 7 days, but a complete coop cleaning, and spraying of walls, roosts, nests, and floor must be done before clean shavings are applied. Hay and straw can harbour mites when they are brought in so avoid them.
Heat is just hard on some chickens. Keeping water cool and in the shade, providing shallow pans of water to wade in, and running a fan to blow out hot air in the coop works best for me. On very hot days, it doesn't hurt to use electrolytes in the water.
Was the blood on his comb, or could it have come from his nose or vent? Could he be starting his molt, when all chickens feel lousy and weak? Worming him, and bumping up his protein to 20% may help.
 
The blood is for sure from another roo injuring him. He's been molting, which may be worsening the issue, but I don't think that can be all behind it. I don't think it's Mareks either since all of the other chickens have been fine the past few weeks. I may go get a fecal done today.
 
He's still weird acting and wobbly, only attempted to crow once in the past week or so. He's hanging in there though, thoughts?
 
I haven't wormed but I added ACV to the water and started mixing game bird feed to raise protein levels. Do you think he's well enough to worm?
 
You can worm him with Safeguard. As long as your rooster is still eating, Safeguard is a very good wormer that is not very toxic.

Worms are going to cause him a lot more trouble at this stage of illness than Safeguard will.
 

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