Heath checks and worming

[AdrieeC]

Hi everyone,

I am new to BYC and to chicken raising. Some things I remember from when I was a kid... like picking up a chicken... but I am a bit confused on how to do the health checks...
I have 1 Welsummer Rooster right now... aproximatly 3 months old. I will be getting some hens, but I am waiting until I am sure he is healthy first.

We had an unforseen problem with the chicken tractor so he is roosting on the enclosed front poorch right now, and free ranging on our 1.5 acres during the day. His eyes are clear and dark his feathers neat, apparently clean, and so shiny the neighbors commented on it from accross the road. he holds his tail up high unless he is sleeping or trying not to let me catch him...I have had to do it a couple of times. and his red thing looks clear and bright ( I forgot to look at the chicken anatemy page before posting). His leggs look good to me... both have a red stripe down the side, it is pretty uniform so I don't think I should be worried about it? The underside looks clean as well. Something I read said that I should check his nostrils and make sure they are not leaking.. but I dont see nostrils where I think they should be... but have not noticed anything leaking from anywhere around his beak area. His stool looks like coaco puffs with a little bit of white and sometimes specks of green. I have seen a few runny looking dark colored droppings... maybe one or two a day...of what I have observed. He seems to be eating and drinking...though I have only observed him doing both a couple of times. I read/infered from reading that dark runny/semmirunny dropping are a sign of worms... is that right?

He crows at the appropriate time, and has bouts of crowing throughout the day. He does go out and roam the yard a bit, but spends more time than I expected hanging out on the front poorch ( his temporary coop) and yesterday, discovered a way into our virtually unused detatched "garage"and walked around in there quite a bit. should I be concerned about this?

Please take a moment to walk me through one of your health checks, what do you do in what order and what are you looking for?

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[chookchick]

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on checking him out...The things that I would look for would be lice or mites on his skin. Any discharge from his eyes, nostrils or vent. Rough scales on his legs. Coughing or sneezing, and of course lethargy. Sometimes chickens will have a latent illness that won't show up for a while, but can be brought on by the stress of moving. That is why quarantine is sooo important, and will be doubly important when you bring in more chickens. Here's a good article on that:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-adding-to-your-flock
If you are bringing in adult hens, I would wait until he is at least 6 months old, so he can handle them without getting beat up. But still do a slow introduction after quarantine. Good luck!

 

[AdrieeC]

Thank you for responding, I was worried no one would see it, it had traveled so far down the list.

Wally continues to look and act healthy. Last night when I checked him over I noticed that he had some black flecks on his comb they are not raised. My cousin mentioned that he saw the rooster in the sticker bushes the day before, and that might just be scabs. I took pictures of it just incase so I can evaluate the damage for any further development. I looked at a lot of pictures of combs last night on the forums and byc and tried to see the difference between ones that just looked scabby and the ones that had fowel pox. And I don't think he has that. I think I will try some olive oil on it tonight or tomorrow. I am going to see if I can check for mites and lice tonight. It seems hard to view his skin with such dark feathers, and then there is the fact that he tries to fly away a lot while I have him by the feet.

What would you consider lathargic? While he does go outside and freerange, he has been spending large amounts of his time on the poorch ( his temporary coop) and in the garage... I thought he would spend a lot more time than he does outside... Do you think it's just because he is in a new place? Or because he's by himself at the moment. the man I bought him from had a flock of 75. He also emailed me back and said that he was last wormed on Feb 23 with apple cider viniger. How effective do you feel this is? And how often can it/should it be used?

I am sorry for all the questions, but he's the first chicken of my adult life...and I am paranoid...

 

[rancher hicks]

You may want to try bits of bread mine like that and come running for it. Feed him by hand and spend as much time with him as you can. Chickens are flock animals and he'll want and need company. As for the ACV for worms I can't say, but will watch to see for myself what people say.

All the best

Rancher

 

[chickletranch]

get the poor guy some girls!

we adopted a lone roo, our first chicken, and he followed us everywhere. he was a great bird...and started us
on our journey of flockraising!

try not to worry about him too much. with rooster, you want to check the bottoms of their feet occasionally for bumblefoot and check their vent
area for mites/lice, etc. (which are usually easier to see in that area). i used to put DE (food or garden-grade diatomaceous earth) in our coop and
pens to help prevent infestations. i would advise using ivermectin for worming. we live in a dry area with few parasites, but still manage to have
occasional worm issues with the flock (i had to de-worm 3 times last year, which is alot for us). you might want to worm him in the spring as a
precaution.

as far as overall heath, respiratory problems have been the worst thing we've dealt with. it'll be obvious if your bird is sneezing, coughing or seems
congested. depending on how serious the problem is, there are antibiotics and natural remedies you can use. if your rooster is very ill (lethargic),
he will not seem normal...may puff up and isolate himself under something on the ground and close his eyes alot.

best of luck with him!
lynn

 

[chookchick]

Little black specks on the comb are common, and usually from hitting the comb on something or getting pecked by another chicken. I wasn't really thinking about him being so alone last night (it was late with the time change!). I guess if he was mine, I would try to pick up some younger, healthy hens soon and start a slow introduction right away (keep them separated but visible). Younger hens probably won't try to beat up on him. It's not like you have a whole flock at risk, it's only one chicken, and he will be very lonely. That could explain some of his strange behavior--he's wondering what happened to the rest of the flock!