Barred Rock rooster extremely ill after MITE and LICE infestation

[rhondatalk]

Just noticed that my BR Rooster "Rocky" that is about 22 weeks old and his penmate "Hershey" a chocolate Orpington had an infestation of mice and lice.
Recently we noticed lots of Rocky's feathers in the pen, The 2 don't fight or pick at each other, they always stay by each others side at almost all times.
Rocky had shown a decrease in his health, getting a bit wobbly, sitting down alot, and pale comb and waddles, in addition to the feather loss up until the mice and lice were discovered we didn't notice much else. When I googled how to handle the mice and lice it said that some had pale combs and waddles. That was true of Rocky too.

We bought a chicken dusting powder that is an equivalent to Sevin dust and dusted both of the birds, their dusting box as well as the ground. Saw hundreds of those darned things crawling all over his feathers, but he kept getting weaker. Within a couple of days he can no longer stand up, his neck hangs down and his head is upside down. He can't hold it up, or himself. If he happens to get his head up, he falls over backwards and can't find which end is up without assistance!

I started him on Vitamin/Electrolyte water immediately once we treated for the lice/mites. He ate for a few days, then when the neck symptoms started occurring, he quit drinking/eating. I am currently straw feeding him water with the vitamins/electrolytes and then last night discovered another thing. His eye was completely swollen and covered in dirt. I figured he had gotten something in it when he would lose his balance and roll around, but when I cleaned it off, I saw a white, rubbery substance in his eye. I thought maybe it was a worm, so I gently squeezed his eye and the thing popped out. His eye is glazed over behind it.

He is so weak! I tried to feed him scrambled eggs and some spinach, but he won't eat anything. His penmate has none of his symptoms (with the exception of the previous lice infestation that was not NEARLY as severe as Rocky's.

Do I dare give him an antibiotic? I have Terra-Vet 10 powder on hand, but not sure what to do.

In the pen next to them I have 4 babies that we incubated in March, and none of them appear to have any symptoms either, so i'm not sure what he has.

I'm not sure whether to move him out or keep him in and continue nursing him...but i'm not sure what i'm nursing him of! Any ideas?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi. Sorry for your troubles. I don't know if this is it, but at least you can check it out.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=eye worm in chickens

It's hard for me to believe that chicks in close proximity might not have lice as well. What separates the pens?

Your boy (and orp) probably needs to be wormed as well, but too risky and not recommended when sick.

To keep the mice away you might need to remove the grain at night. Aside from them being free loaders, they spread urine and feces on everything including your feed. And contamination is never a good idea.

Your boys current condition is nutrition related most likely. I would be dropping the vit/electro mix every 15 minutes or so until I saw some improvement or decided to humanely cull. And I would separate him to a dark quiet spot where he can get some rest and attention. Plus not making matters worse for the others.

I have zero experience with antibiotics, other than knowing that using the wrong one not only doesn't help but also creates resistance. Maybe do a search here on BYC for chickens and antibiotics. I know there are lots who use them.

Also, if Rocky survives, your pullet will be way over mated unless you have a bunch more hens. He may even try to mate your younger birds before they are ready.

I wish I could be more help. Sometimes these things go by the front page really fast so people may not see it. Also I am no expert, so make your own decisions on any suggestion I make.

Good luck!

 

[rhondatalk]

Hi, thanks for your reponse! I was so confused when I saw you say something about mice, then realized i typed in MICE instead of MITES! No worries though.
Have you used Poultry Nutri-Drench? I was reading that it could give them a pretty quick boost. If I can get him to be better temporarily, then maybe he'll have the energy to eat again. I have been doing the vitamin/electrolyte water every hour, so i'll bump that up. He is currently standing, but his head is still hanging upside down. He happily accepts the water we're giving with the straw, but i'll go ahead and move him anyway.

An interesting tidbit - when I got that white rubbery thing out of his eye, his comb and face color became more red almost immediately. Not completely full color of course, but looked a ton better!

As far as the overmating - i am prepared, we have others in another pen that i can move in with him, and the smaller chicks are 15 weeks, so there is 3 more of them to add to his "harem".

The chicks are only separated by some green plastic gardening fence. They can't get through, and we put it up to separate the ages until they come of age, so there is definitely not much separating them. We did powder the chicks down too as a precaution,, even though we didn't see anything on them. I'll check them out thoroughly this weekend.

Any idea about the weird eye thing?

 

[rhondatalk]

also, i checked out the link and no, it doesn't appear to be a worm. It was a rubber like substance that was inside his eyelid and covered his whole eye. His eye is open today, after getting the stuff out of it last evening, but his eye still looks clouded...

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Maybe it was dried up puss from his body fighting the infection. Sometimes the body will encase a foreign object, if something got in there when he fell. Just brain storming here.

I thought mice might have been a slip, but I went with it.

So if you have mites, you may need to spray your roosts and stuff to. They are good at hiding in cracks on wood. Does that dust work on eggs as well as the bug?

Hate lice!

Ortho Max Home Defense is what I use if I have to use a chemical. It works very well on many bugs and last 6 months for $7 per gallon. Claims to be non toxic once dry.

You can use your own judgement if you wanna move him now. Maybe too late, but if you think it will help him.....

Also your hourly routine may be enough. Sounds good that he is liking the drink and he reddened up a bit after removal of the object from the eye.

I might boil an egg and smash it really well and thin down with your solution so it can go in your dropper. Sounds like you are trying hard to get it figured out and take care of him.

Incidentally, I wouldn't personally choose to breed a bird that had been sick like that, ever. But it's a personal choice.

I will follow along to see how he progresses. I am here to learn as well as offer any support I can.

Best wishes from my flock to yours!