Chicken looks really ill

[Chickens4life13]

I have a rooster that has recently acting really weird. He has white poo and keeps on closing his eyes every time and not that active as he is. I ama very nice boy your very naughty getting worried please reply.

 

[Chickens4life13]

Sorry my young brother start randomly typing I meant I am worried

 

[Eggcessive]

Is your rooster eating layer feed? If so, I would take him off of it because it has 3 times the calcium he needs. He could be suffering from kidney failure, since the white in droppings is urates. There may be some infections that might cause the excess urates in the poo also.

 

[cafarmgirl]

How old is this bird?

 

[Chickens4life13]

4-6 months old

 

[Chickens4life13]

What should I feed them instead of layer feed

 

[cafarmgirl]

At that young age this is not likely to be caused by eating the layer feed. I have roosters 5, 6+ years old that have eaten layer feed all their lives and are going strong.

That said, if you want to feed something else you can feed an all flock type feed and give the hens oyster shell on the side. You just need to keep an eye on their egg shells. I tried this once and had a few hens start laying very thin shelled eggs, they just weren't eating enough oyster shell. Put them back on layer and the problem went away.

As far as what is going on with your bird, I am not sure. It could be that he has some kind of infection going on and a course of antibiotic's might help. I usually don't advocate giving antibiotic's unless I have a good idea of what's going on but sometimes these birds are very hard to figure out and all you can do is take a shot in the dark and try to help. I've saved more then one bird by doing so.

Is his poop runny at all? At his young age I suppose it sure wouldn't hurt to rule out coccidiosis with a course of Corid.

 

[Chickens4life13]

The poo is runny and white

 

[Chickens4life13]

Should I take it to the vet

 

[cafarmgirl]

You can if you are ok with the cost and if you have an avian vet or other vet who will see chickens. Just know that getting a diagnosis often requires a lot of expensive testing and lab work, although in this case you could just start with a fecal sample and see if he has high levels of cocci or parasites and go from there.