Chicken seems like he doesn't feel well

[chelmer640]

Hello, I have pet chickens and one of my oldest beloved roosters has been sleeping on his stomach with his tail feathers up in the air, and trying to hide his head in the corner of his coup. His tummy or breast seems to be damp and he has worn his feathers away there. He eats well, and he is 8 years old, so he has slowed down some. Last year he had pnemonia and was treated for it, but any thoughts on why he is doing this?? I am afraid he may be ill again.........

 

[threehorses]

To help us better help you, could you possibly answer the questions from the below-listed sticky post - only answer them into *this* thread so that we can read them? This helps us to establish a flock and bird history. The more information you provide, the more accurately we can help you. If you'd like to provide more, please do! You can't give us too much information really. Again the more you provide about every aspect of this chicken, the flock, the environment, the better.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569 <-- the sticky thread.

Also, I'd recommend highly that you pick this old wonderful boy up and examine him thoroughly for mites/lice. Do at least a couple of checks during the week at night as mites don't always stay on the bird; they spend most of their time off the bird and only come back on to feed.

Check carefully in the warm/moist areas and very thoroughly as both are hard to see and are very very tiny. Good areas to concentrate are under the wings - all in the feathers as well as the body, around the back of the neck, and around the vent. Be sure to look for lice eggs clustered around feather bases. To me, they look sometimes like miniature snow. But any white clusters will be lice eggs.

If you find any, you must treat both bird and premises. Let us know your findings and we'll tell you how.

Also, please be sure to tell us details about his roosting arrangements, what ground you have (soil, grass, sand), the bedding in the coop area (kiln or regular pine shavings, cedar, etc), what he's eating specifically and how much of each, etc.

As for pneumonia, most likely he had another respiratory illness. If he shows symptoms of that, and the treatment was successful, consider doing that again. Often the symptoms disappear but birds can remain a carrier, falling prey to relapses in stress conditions.

I'm glad to hear that he eats well, and he sounds like he's received wonderful care! I'd like to see a few more years tacked onto his life span before he heads off elsewhere.

Hopefully we can help you with that.

Thank you!

P.s. on his breast, check carefully for any breaks in the skin and treat with an antibiotic ointment like plain old Neosporin. No cortisone in it, no 'caines or pain killers - just the old fashioned neosporin triple antibiotic. The skin is the bird's number one defense against illness and so we don't want it broken. Be sure also that where ever he's resting is very very dry, perhaps kiln-dried or compacted pine or aspen shavings like you find (less expensively) at the feed store for horses. If he's on dirt, consider using some play-sand or other dry and very course (not fine) sand to dry up the area so that the dampness is cleared a bit.

What antibiotics did you use previously? What were his symptoms?

 

[chelmer640]

Hello, I am new to the site, so the threads confuse me a bit, but let me see if I can answer these questions. He sleeps on hay, and has a perch. I try to keep it clean, but probably don't do as well as I should. Of course I sanitze his waterer and he eats the vitamin fortifed feed from the feed store, plus loves human snacks........... I haven't dusted him lately, I didn't think he had any thing like that, I am in Florida and mosquitos are just now getting botersome for the birds. When he had pnemonia, a friend of mine who worked with animals in the movies took him to a special bird vet, but it was hours away. We have nothing like that around here and my friend has since died. I guess I will check him good tomorrow for the bugs and I was also told by this bird vet that putting them in a lighted room for a few nights helped to stimulate their pituitary glands? He was treated with injections from the vet that my husband gave him and I don't remember what it was. My friend took him to a really special doctor and I do not have the means that he did. Also today I let him play in a sandbox and tried to rub the sand on his breast to dry it out a bit, but he was unimpressed with this gesture! Maybe he needs some of that liquid sulfite stuff? Or maybe he just like sleeping like this now??

 

[threehorses]

I've posted a reply on your other post.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2626938#p2626938 for anyone else who wants to check it out. I was about to tell you about it and then I realized it's the same rooster!

 

[Mahonri]

I have one that I'm working to save at present... a 14 week old splash Ameraucana roo whose neck is now curved down. He's eating and drinking but he's not thriving. If he were a pullet I'd probably have him inside but I'm too busy with the coop and the two pens trying to keep them cool. C'mon September!!

 

[gumpsgirl]

**Due to duplicate posting, this thread is now closed.

If you would like to off advice, please do so on this thread - https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=221823/i]