Help please...14 week old rooster not doing well.

[JanetLM]

My little bantam rooster is very lethargic. He does not seem to have lost any weight & his crop is full this evening. His comb and wattles have not paled and are not droopy. He has been roosting with the hens but tonight when I went to check on them he was on the poop board under them. I thought they had just pushed him off but when I reached in to get him he didnt try to get up or move away. He is very tame & will sit with me and today after work was no different. He seemed ok this afternoon moving around & eating the yellow squash I gave them.

I did have one hen pass away Friday nite from cocci and have been treating them all with sulmet in the drinking water 2 TBS/gallon of water. This is the only water they have available. He is in the house now in a box with a heat light as he was shivering & as soon as he poops I was going to check it. I have also checked for bugs and sores on him-under his wings, base of his tail and nothing. I have felt both his wings and they seem good. HIs feet do not have any sores or bad places on them.

Is there anything else I can do at this point?

 

[Eggcessive]

Make sure that he is drinking the Sulmet because they tend to stop eating, then drinking because of abdominal pain. You can dip his beak , dropper feed him or crop feed him. Corid is preferred for cocci to sulfa drugs because it treats more strains and sulfas can be hard on kidneys. Sounds like you are doing well, especially keeping him warm. Give them all probiotics and vitamins for several days after the Sulmet.

 

[JanetLM]

Should I pick up some Corid in the morning & start using it instead of the sulmet?

How much water should I dropper feed him at a time & how often? Should I do this through out the night?

 

[Eggcessive]

Dunk his beak first, and let him swallow. If he won't co-operate, then give him a couple of drops at a time, and give him a chance to swallow as often as you can. Sulmet treats the 2 worst strains of cocci, Corid treats all 9 or so strains, so if I could get it I would switch.

 

[JanetLM]

I checked his fecal and no worms or cocci. He has eat some watermelon this morning and I have given him water with a dropper. I have also turned the heat light off as he doesnt seem chilled anymore. He seems kinda lonely now. I will put back with the flock after the sun dries up all the dew & it warms up some. On my way to work this morning Im going to get corid, probiotics and vitamins,

I there anything else I need to be watching for?

Thanks for all the help and advise

 

[Eggcessive]

All chickens have worms if they are on the ground. You can only see large roundworms in the poop, and they don't just excrete them all the time. Chickens can get several dangerous worms that are only seen with a fecal float by a vet, or you can use Valbazen or SafeGuard/Panacur that gets most or all worms. 1/2 ml of either of those , then repeat in 10 days will work. SafeGuard comes in 2 forms for chickens--the equine paste or the liquid goat wormer which is very easy to dose, and most feed stores have it. All chickens also have cocci, but they will build up resistance to it as they age. Some strains cause blood in the stool while others don't.

 

[JanetLM]

I have Safeguard/goat wormer. I give it to them directly not mixed in the water? And would the dosage be the same for standard size hens?

I did a float fecal and didn't see anything last night or this morning. I will do another this afternoon on a couple of the hens.

Do you have a good site with pictures of what chickens worms/cocci would look like? Are they different than goats?

 

[Eggcessive]

The SafeGuard is dosed orally undiluted, and 1/2 is correct for a standard hen. Larger doses of 1ml for 5 days in a row will treat for difficult worms such as capillaria or hairworm, and gapeworm. I don't do fecal floats, but this person is a vet tech who is familiar, and might be able to help if you sent a PM: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/848229/poultry-fecal-flotation-procedures-and-pictures

 

[JanetLM]

Would my bantams need a smaller dose then?

I picked up some vitamins and probotics- can these be put in the water at the same time?

And I picked up corid too...they have been on Sulmet water since Friday evening...is it safe to switch them this afternoon to the corid for 3-5 days?

Thank you so much. I appreciate all your adivse and help.

 

[Eggcessive]

For a bantam, 1/4 ml would be good. How is the little cockerel doing? If everyone is doing well or better, you are only 2 days from completing your Sulmet, so I would continue it. But if he is not better, then I would switch to Corid and treat 5 days. The vitamins and probiotics may be okay in the Sulmet water, but I''m not sure.