Rooster making gurgling noises

[oakcliffchicks]

I have a rooster that is very lethargic and is making gurgling/snoring noises.

Saturday night he didn’t sleep on the roost, he slept on the floor. Sunday he was back to being on the roost, Monday he was back to being on the floor again.

I kept an eye on him all day yesterday (Tuesday) and he was lethargic.

He is eating and drinking, however. His comb is still red, no eye swelling or discharge, and poop looks normal

Brought him inside in a cage last night.

What else should I do?

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

Sorry, nobody's gotten back to you. How old is your rooster?

I'd give him vitamins in case he's fighting anything. We use Poultry Cell in their water every other day for any time one is acting sick. There's a chance he's got a respiratory infection, but without any other symptoms, he must be fighting it off well.

If this goes on without improvement on his own, you might want to get him an antibiotic. There are online sources for those if you don't have a vet to prescribe something for him.

 

[oakcliffchicks]

Hi!

Sorry, nobody's gotten back to you. How old is your rooster?

I'd give him vitamins in case he's fighting anything. We use Poultry Cell in their water every other day for any time one is acting sick. There's a chance he's got a respiratory infection, but without any other symptoms, he must be fighting it off well.

If this goes on without improvement on his own, you might want to get him an antibiotic. There are online sources for those if you don't have a vet to prescribe something for him.

he’s 4 months old.

so good news, he’s back to normal now!

A few days ago I do think he was very, very bad. I realized he was infested with mites/lice which likely led to the respiratory infection. I gave him a warm bath with some Dawn soap to hopefully get the parasites off of him. The next day he got worse. He just wanted to sleep and was struggling to breathe and he hadn’t eaten or drank water. I syringed some egg yolk and some diy electrolyte water into his beak. Did this for about an hour or two and then he really pepped up. When I put him back in his cage he started drinking again. I scrambled him an egg and mixed in half of a Super B Complex tablet and he gobbled that up.

I’d say he’s 95% back to normal now. He doesn’t seem wobbly on his feet, but I can still hear him snoring when he’s trying to sleep.

We got some Raxel psp and first saturday lime. Treated the flock with the psp. Noticed his little girlfriend had a fair amount of mites/lice as well (didn’t see them on anyone else, however). So we took her inside for the last two nights because she’s been having a lot of stuff coming out of her nostrils that I have been having to scrape off.

But all in all everyone seems good now!

 

[Debbie292d]

Oh my, yes, mites can eventually kill chickens, so good thing you found out soon enough to save them! Happy to hear!

The FSL doesn't do much for mites for us (tested on preventing fruitflies in our parrot cages), but it does work putting it where there's sitting water, like the boggy area by a creek/pond, to kill mosquito larvae. We use food-grade diatomaceous earth in our coops and parrot cages to keep mites, lice, and fruitflies out.

I'd still up their vitamins as the mites will take a lot out of them.