Help! Rooster NOT doing well (photos included!)

[RareChicken]

I have a rooster that’s been ill since the 3rd. Here’s the story…
I noticed that he didn’t seem his typical insane self on the 3rd. That same day we had a rooster get his comb almost ripped off by what I believe was a barn cat from someone else’s property. I believe it grabbed him through the fence. He’s fine and I’ve been treating that with chlorhexidine cleanings and a round of penicillin so he doesn’t end up with a secondary infection.

My other rooster isn’t crowing, has greenish poop with white, isn’t eating, and just sort of stands around in his dog crate or roosts on the bar I gave him. (He is completely separated from the other birds.) I wormed him because I had a chicken test positive for threadworms. I’ve treated with Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole tabs for almost five days. I was thinking it might have been coccidia but I’m not really seeing any results. I had put him on oxytetracycline at first but that seemed to do nothing so I discontinued that after a few days and gave a vitamin/probiotic supplement in the water instead.
I’ve been feeding him and he seems a bit better after being feed but is still just standing around with his tail down.

I was also thinking maybe crop cankers. He acts somewhat normal other than the above mentioned maladies. Freaks out when I try to get him to feed him and occasionally "hums" at me. I unfortunately don’t have the medicine for cankers yet. I have ordered some that will show up on Tuesday.

Any ideas would be appreciated… injury or illness?

Photos are of his poop today in his dog crate.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I wormed him because I had a chicken test positive for threadworms. I’ve treated with Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole tabs for almost five days. I was thinking it might have been coccidia but I’m not really seeing any results. I had put him on oxytetracycline at first but that seemed to do nothing so I discontinued that after a few days and gave a vitamin/probiotic supplement in the water instead.
I’ve been feeding him and he seems a bit better after being feed but is still just standing around with his tail down.

I was also thinking maybe crop cankers. He acts somewhat normal other than the above mentioned maladies. Freaks out when I try to get him to feed him and occasionally "hums" at me.

Please post photos of him.

Did you check him over really well for any injury, wounds lice/mites, etc.?

What do you feed, including treats?
Has the feed been fresh, any chance he ate something moldy or compost, etc.?

What did you deworm with? Product, dose and timeline.

It does take time for antibiotics to work if he's suffering from infection. So it's not a good idea to keep cutting the time given short.

A video of the humming would be good - upload video to youtube and provide a link.

Photos of the inside of the beak? You mention Crop Cankers....is there a bad odor, do you see patches or lesions inside the beak?
Is his crop emptying overnight?

I would work on him getting hydrated, then offer him some wet soupy feed to see if he will eat. Hold a cup of the feed up to his beak and see if he can eat on his own.

 

[RareChicken]

No wounds and no lice or mites. I bathed him on the 4th to get a really good look at his skin to look for wounds or mites and saw nothing.

I feed Kalmbach 20% protein full plume feathering right now because I have some hens coming out of hard molts. I don’t feed treats because it takes away from the nutrition of the feed. Occasionally I will cook a big bowl of quail eggs and feed that as a treat. There’s no way anything would have been moldy. I inspect all my feed bags for water damage and the feeders are all porthole style drilled into a bucket that sit under a lean-to to keep them dry.

It was safeguard paste equine wormer and only a pea sized amount. I did that on the 4th.

Yes, I completely understand that. I only removed him from the oxytetracycline because he really started to rapidly decline at that point.
He was on oxytetracycline first then I gave the electrolytes/vitamins to boost him up before the Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole tabs.
The Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole tabs are a five day treatment and tomorrow will be his last day for that.


No bad odor but I do have another rooster with very small cankers that I’m treating with acidified copper sulfate. I put it in the drinkers for the entire flock. If one has it I’m sure a few others probably do. Today is day three for them on that and I’ve checked the canker and it’s going away.
All the other flock mates are healthy and not showing any signs of illness.

His crop is emptying. He eats very little on his own but by morning it’s all gone out of his crop. I have hydrated him by syringing electrolyte water into his crop and waiting about an hour to make sure he’s pooping and hydrated. I tried some wet chicken feed and also Springwaters avian health shake. He unfortunately didn’t show interest in either. So I’m syringe feeding him instead. Thank you for your help!

 

[RareChicken]

The yellow crust on his beak is just some of the health shake from him messing in it a bit. He mainly just slept on his roosting bar today but he’s getting more vocal like he was before he became ill.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It was safeguard paste equine wormer and only a pea sized amount. I did that on the 4th.

No bad odor but I do have another rooster with very small cankers that I’m treating with acidified copper sulfate. I put it in the drinkers for the entire flock. If one has it I’m sure a few others probably do. Today is day three for them on that and I’ve checked the canker and it’s going away.

He's a handsome rooster!

If you have Canker in your flock, this may be what's going on with him, but hard to know.

I'd continue to work on hydration and encouraging him to eat.

Did you see worms or have a fecal float?

Fenbendazole is dosed by weight, so with the Safeguard Paste dose would be 0.23ml per pound of weight give orally once, then repeated in 10days to treat Roundworms only.

If you are wanting to treat other worms that poultry can have, except for Tapeworms, then give at a dose of 0.23ml per pound of weight orally once daily for 5 days in a row.

 

[RareChicken]

Thank you so much! He’s one of my best boys!

He’s almost through his canker treatment. I’ve managed to keep his weight steady and today he has started eating on his own again. Not eating a lot but it’s something! He’s filling his crop to were you can feel an amount of food again. I know that’s confusing but I’m sure you get what I’m saying!

Seems like it might have been a crop or esophagus canker and now he’s working on gaining strength back after being down for almost two weeks.

I send off fecal float tests once every three months. Just to make sure everything is good. This was our first positive and I was told it was a very low amount of threadworm eggs. They use a 1 to 10 scale and it was only a 1.

So it’s five days in a row for threadworms? Our veterinarian told me once then again in ten days.

Again, thank you for your time!

 

[RareChicken]

I wanted to inform anyone who reads this thread about what this ended up being.

Cole (the rooster) ended up having cancer in his crop and was euthanized.

The others that I believed had cankers were tested and it came back negative. The yellow plaque is gone in the others but the veterinary is unsure as to what they were.

 

[Sammster]

I'm so sorry. He really was a very handsome boy

 

[RareChicken]

I'm so sorry. He really was a very handsome boy

Thank you for your sympathy! He was one of my best chicken buddies.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I wanted to inform anyone who reads this thread about what this ended up being.

Cole (the rooster) ended up having cancer in his crop and was euthanized.

The others that I believed had cankers were tested and it came back negative. The yellow plaque is gone in the others but the veterinary is unsure as to what they were.

I'm sorry to hear about Cole

Thank you for letting us know what you found out.