A week or so ago I noticed my 8-9 month old Silkie cockerel had lost a LOT of weight. He lives in a coop with two other Silkie cockerels and three hens. He is a bit more skittish than the other birds and I thought originally that the other boys were just bullying him away from the food. I did notice though, a few days before I found out how thin he was, that he was always the first one to dive into the food in the morning. When I say dive, I mean dive! He would practically pounce on the food and begin eating. The others would be like "Oh, food, how lovely, I'll eat later.", which is how my adult Silkies usually eat (they're penned so they always have plenty of food and don't need to rush with eating). So I put Ambrose (the sick cockerel) in a cage inside the coop so that he could still be near his buddies but they couldn't push him away from the food. Every time I fed him in the morning and evening he'd gobble his food down like he was starving. I fed him the regular feed, and also some scrambled egg or homemade bread every other day. After he'd been separated for a week he had still not gained any weight, was actually still losing weight, was having trouble seeing (it seems, anyway), and was having balance issues. I thought maybe a vitamin deficiency, E or D? Added Poly-vi-sol for a few days, no change. Yesterday he was lying on the floor on his side unable to get up. At the base of his tail on his back end he was bleeding a little (I don't think it was his vent, and I don't know why he was bleeding) and some ants had been attracted so I brought him inside and bathed his bottom to get the ants off. My sister saw a weird wiggling little bug in the water but I didn't pay it a lot of attention 'cause I was focused on getting him clean and dry. Set him up in a cage in my room and later when I fed him (he acted starving, again) he had pooped and I saw two more of the same bug that had been in the bath water near the poo. Looked near his tail again(did not seem to be bleeding) and saw a couple more of the same wiggling bugs. Put them and his poo in a zipper baggie, and I just took some pics of them.
(Click photos for larger size, sorry I couldn't get better pics but my camera's zoom feature doesn't work anymore.)
EDIT: They are about half an inch long.
Anybody know what these are? I don't believe they're maggots (fly or gnat) but I guess it's possible? They are very active in the little baggie. My guess was they're worms and that's why he's still losing weight even though he's eating well. Roundworms look like long, very thin spaghetti, right? I have seen those only once before in our free-rangers, and that's definitely not what these are. I do not know what tape or any other worms look like. We have never wormed before but now I'm looking into it. Any help would be appreciated!
(Click photos for larger size, sorry I couldn't get better pics but my camera's zoom feature doesn't work anymore.)
EDIT: They are about half an inch long.
Anybody know what these are? I don't believe they're maggots (fly or gnat) but I guess it's possible? They are very active in the little baggie. My guess was they're worms and that's why he's still losing weight even though he's eating well. Roundworms look like long, very thin spaghetti, right? I have seen those only once before in our free-rangers, and that's definitely not what these are. I do not know what tape or any other worms look like. We have never wormed before but now I'm looking into it. Any help would be appreciated!
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