Help - my roo suddenly lost a lot of weight

[ChickenladyinMN]

My roo that I brought in because the others injured him was doing great - finally crowing, eating well and being normal. Then suddenly its like he has given up he has trouble standing up and has dropped alot of weight. His comb has lost its red color and his feathers are dull, and his wings hang down almost touching the ground. He is eating, drinking and pooping just fine. Im worried that Im going to lose him - what should I do?

 

[dlhunicorn]

How old is your roo...what have you been feeding it...what breed? Free ranging? Have you ever wormed him?

 

[seminolewind]

He might be septic, I would put him on antibiotics. Right away

 

[ChickenladyinMN]

Quote:
He will be one year in May. He eats the egg layer crumbles like the rest. He is an aracauna, no free range - when he was with the others they are in a pen. I have never wormed chickens .

 

[ChickenladyinMN]

Quote:
What is septic?

 

[silkiechicken]

I would guess maybe a heavy worm load may have got the best of him since he is eating. Worms will gobble up the nutrients and so he can't use them. If you don't see any place where he could have gotten a raging infection, I wouldn't administer any antibiotics. Make sure he keeps eating and see if you can find a good wormer. I don't know much about wormer's, so you'll have to look around.


Edit:

Septic means that if he has an infection, it has now gone though his whole body, and isn't just in let's say his foot due to bumble foot or something.

 

[CarriBrown]

Chickenlady,
First thing first... Layer crumbles have too much calcium for a roo. He needs to have a choice of other feed (But we can get to that later).
I would worm ASAP. Can you take a fecal sample to a vet for a float? They can tell you exactly what he has and give you the treatment for it. Another thing... Check him for lice, fleas and mites. Look around his neck and vent for nits and little bugs. Buy some poultry dust and dust all of your birds and their housing.
Could he have gotten into something? Poison? Maybe eaten something that ate posion (like a mouse or rat)? Do you happen to use cedar shavings?
And, are any other birds sick?

 

[ChickenladyinMN]

Quote:
I know that the chickens have lice because when my old roo died he was covered in them and my daughter and I had them on us after holding him however I have never seen them on the other birds. All the chickens are together so I put the bowls of layer crumbles down they all eat. This roo has been in the house by himself for the last month or better because he had frostbite and then it healed and I tried to put him back outside and the other picked at him until they had him bleeding -so he came back inside. I need the ground to thaw so I can fix the pen to seperate them. He gets cat food every now and then(trying to fatten him up). The toes on which he has frostbite have turned a yellow/white just after the black part. I suspect that they will eventually fall off then I have to stop the bleeding and he should be fine, my old roo and his father both lost toes or entire feet and were just fine. They just got around of antibiotics in March due to diarhea and throwing up and just looking gross. What is bumble foot?

 

[CarriBrown]

Even if you don't see them, dust ALL of the birds for lice and mites. Better safe than sorry.
Are you able to get Ivermectin? You can usually go to the feed store and get it. If they don't have it for birds, get the Ivermectin Pour-On for cattle and drop .25cc on each bird (half on their back between the wings and the other half on their neck). You CAN NOT eat the eggs for two weeks after doing this. Give all of your birds this treatment, and repeat it in 4-6 months.
If you are feeding only layer pellets, make sure your roo is able to get other types of feed, like fruit, veggies, leftover chicken or rice, etc. because layer pellets have a lot of calcium- Too much calcium for a roo.
Don't feed a lot of cat food, either. You're better off feeding him scrambled egg with his regular feed.