Help! Chickens forgot they like greens and weeds

[LibertyChick]

Update...not much different today. He still ate (non-green slury) mash today with the active oxygen. His color is about the same. I can't seem to get enough active oxygen into him to make a difference. He's pretty wobbly on his feet, especially on the roost. I put the active oxygen in the mash too and water. He's got a semi full crop this evening. I did see some tiny red mites around his vent area and sprinkled some Food Grade Diatomacious Earth under his feathers and his vent area. The mites or whatever they are don't usually survive the DE. As far as I know, he has not had any greens yesterday or today. I'm hoping he did eat some as he moved around somewhat
in the yard.

LibertyChick

 

[LibertyChick]

Update on my rooster. He really didn't eat very much today at all. His color was a little paler than the last couple days and he was still pretty unsteady on his feet. I thought he was going to die today, so I separated him from the girls with some mash and water. He was still alive when I came home and still not really eating much. He saw me and came over and whimpered a little...poor guy!!!! I checked him and he does have mites or something like that. I put the DE on him, but since I didn't get his body 100%, they just probably moved to a different area. Tonight, I talked to one of my organic chicken farmer friends. She suggested that he may be depressed because of the mites and being sooooo uncomfortable and losing his will to live. She suggested I use oil and rub it into his skin because that will suffocate the mites and kill them.

I melted some coconut oil and here is what happened. It was dark when I did this and I brought in a small battery operated led light. I put on rubber gloves and kept dipping my fingers into the oil. I started rubbing his skin under the feathers which wasn't very easy and it was a little awkward. He didn't know what to think of it at first and just sat there. Then he tried to get away and I pulled him back...probably because the mites were on the move. I then somehow started getting the hang of massaging his skin directly around the feathers and it looked like a real massage. He really started to get into it and actually enjoyed it. I started to laugh. I swear, he thought he was a kitty cat in that he had his chest down on the floor and his butt way up in the air. I tried to put the oil on every square inch of his skin...I hope I succeeded. I also put some on his comb and wattles and legs but not his actual feet. He did lay there on his side and let me do this.

I really hope this helps in giving him his will to live again. He must have been so uncomfortable with all those mites/bugs crawling all over him. Praying that he will have a huge appetite in the morning!!!

LibertyChick

 

[LibertyChick]

Update. Today, he didn't really eat. Coloring is getting worse. He's more yellow and less pink and some of his comb is starting to turn a grayish color.

Last night I put the coconut oil on him which he really enjoyed (I'm glad I at least gave him a small period of time that was enjoyable before he dies). But, the mites just migrated out to his feathers away from his skin where the oil was.

I don't really understand this mites thing. I bet they are really uncomfortable, but are they killing him? What do they do to a chicken? Will my girls get the mites too even thought they are doing their dust baths?

What could possibly be wrong with him?

I did try a couple things today. One of my organic chicken farmer friends suggested that I offer him some raw scrambled egg. She said if he doesn't eat it, there's no hope. I offered him the egg and he went right for it twice and then wouldn't touch it again. Ughh!!! It seems like he wants to eat but won't. I also offered him a bunch of live mealworms. He just looked at them for a while and didn't touch them. Then he finally tried to take a few pecks at some but didn't seem to be able to aim his beak very well. He also took a few dips in the kefir but didn't eat too much of it.

This is breaking my heart. I can't help him if he's not eating or drinking!!! I also found out from a natural health guy who wrote a book on oxygen that I can put Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) in their drinking water to a tune of 85ppm. This wasn't easy math, but my husband, who is actually good at math and likes algebra, came up with 5 drops of 35% in a liter of water. So, I put 20 drops of H2O2 in a gallon of water. I even tasted it and I could not taste any H2O2, which was good. This should help with the girls, but I think it may be too late for my Baby Boy. It's breaking my heart, poor guy!!!

He's getting more and more lethargic as the days go by but he made it up into the coop all by himself. I wished I knew what was wrong with him.

LibertyChick

 

[LibertyChick]

Did some research on mites tonight. It looks like the mites on my rooster are probably fowl mites, which can fortunately be starved out (close the coop for 3 weeks). I will have to confirm this tomorrow but the mites were moving around on him even in the daylight as it didn't seem to bother them.

I found this link on the forum about lice and mites.
http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8162.pdf

I knew Diatomacious Earth could treat pests so I looked up to see if it worked on mites and it does. Here is a great website and it's even got a recipe on how to make your own homemade herbal pesticide with lavender, tea tree oil and cloves. As a matter of fact, I think I had bought some powdered cloves 2 years ago when I first got my chickens for this very thing. Oh, I hope I still have it. I hope it still work!!!
http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/diatomaceous_earth_mites.html

LibertyChick

 

[LibertyChick]

I cannot believe he was still alive this morning. I had just gotten done giving him a massage with the olive oil, lavender, tea tree oil and clove oil, which he thoroughly enjoyed. About 10 minutes later he went into convulsions and he was gone.

It's definitely hard because we try so hard to keep them healthy with less than idea diets and even outright bad diets. Just a warning, if you notice the feed formula changed and lots of people are having problems, change the feed immediately to a different feed, don't wait and think that supplementing with weeds or kefir or whatever is going to help...unless you have ideal living conditions with all the healthy weeds and bugs that their heart desires.

...

LibertyChick