Rooster Listless, Can't Walk, Wings Drooping, Very Thirsty

[PollyWaddle]

Happened suddenly on Friday. Our gorgeous Faverolle Roo stopped walking, got droopy, won't eat much, but drinking a lot of water. Now his wings are drooping & he can barely stand. Very afraid he will die soon. I remember reading something about this last year, but can't remember. Will someone help, or send me a discussion thread link?

 

[DawnSuiter]

Please check carefully for mites, under wings, around vent, in the tail, on the neck, around the legs. Evidence of mites includes scabs, red marks, dirty feathers and skin, and of course actually creepy crawlies... tiny black or red crawling specks.

This has happened here on more than one occasion. If you find evidence... immediately give a GOOD bath using a permethrin based flea/tick shampoo - generic is fine, using a brush of some sort (we use a dish washing type brush) to gently remove the bugs & dirt from the base of the feathers. One today and another in 5 days with poultry dustings in between, should do the trick.

After the bath, keep him somewhere warm & provide plenty of fresh water and cooked eggs for food. After a couple days he should be back up and moving around and can go back on regular foods.

if this isn't the problem... sorry to scare you.

 

[PollyWaddle]

He's had a bad case of mites in the past, and this is different. This appears to be a slow/steady paralysis, where first he couldn't walk, now he can barely stand and his wings started drooping. I did read about these symptoms as some point, but can't remember what people were calling it?? Was it botulism?

 

[PollyWaddle]

Any long-timers have a treatment for botulism??

 

[TariOronar]

I'm not really a long timer, but someone suggested that my chicken might have botulism....here's the link they gave me https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=219553