HELP! Suddenly Sick Rooster - Stumbling, Twisting Head

[Outpost JWB]

Okay, my 7-year-old daughter helped me catch him and inspect him. What we found is very small whitish colored bugs living at the base of his feathers. I did not see any eggs; his ears look fine. I couldn't find anything at the vent.

What are the very small bugs at the base of the feathers? Could those be causing the problem? There weren't tons of them, but we did see a few the more we dug around looking at his feathers.

Yes, they could be causing the problem. Maybe they are biting him and it's driving him batty. That would explain the jerking motions. I would treat him as @MrsBrooke stated in the earlier post. I think the white at the base of the feathers is either lice, or eggs from mites. A mite will lay the eggs along the base of feathers. This indicates an infestation. Mites do not always appear to the human eye. And they hide during the day. Waiting for the chicken to go to roost at night and then having dinner on your chicken. Nasty, I know. You need to treat the entire coop also.

 

[MrsBrooke]

Yes, they could be causing the problem.  Maybe they are biting him and it's driving him batty.  That would explain the jerking motions.  I would treat him as @MrsBrooke
 stated in the earlier post.  I think the white at the base of the feathers is either lice, or eggs from mites.  A mite will lay the eggs along the base of feathers.  This indicates an infestation.  Mites do not always appear to the human eye.  And they hide during the day.  Waiting for the chicken to go to roost at night and then having dinner on your chicken.  Nasty, I know.  You need to treat the entire coop also. 

Yes! Sevin dust should be on your shopping list ASAP. It doesn't bother the chickens. Dust 'em up, do it again in seven, and again in seven. Coop, too. Clean and sanitize waterers, feeders, nest boxes, and change bedding before each dusting to kill any eggs or hatchers when you do the chickens.

Let us know if anything else starts happening.

MrsB

 

[Sarah3]

Thanks for your response. There is not whitish at the base of the feathers. Rather, we saw actual little whitish colored bugs moving around on his skin. So they must be something other than mites as they sound too large from what you are describing. Maybe lice? But I did not see any eggs on the feathers at all; just a few little white bugs hiding at the base of the feathers. All the pictures I could find on the web of lice on chickens showed brown bugs, and these were white/clearish.

The rooster has been better and better as the day has gone on. I can only get him to exhibit the head/jerking and stumbling behavior now if he actually starts running (whereas this morning it was even if I just got near him). He has been eating and drinking very well all day.

I did give him and the whole flock some milk kefir today as well as some apple cider vinegar in their water. I also gave the rooster as well as the whole flock a dose of a homeopathic remedy to help with lice/mites (I am a homeopath; just a little out of my element with chickens as I usually treat people who can much more clearly describe to me what their ailments are

). I'll keep you posted on what else develops.

Thanks again for all of your input!

Since I'm more into natural methods of treatment and would like to avoid using Sevin if I can help it, do any of you have any experience with using Poultry Protector spray? And is there any small amount of insects that is considered "normal" on chickens, or is zero the actual norm for a healthy bird?

 

[MrsBrooke]

Well, I have *heard* coating your birds with coconut oil is magic for tiny pests, but I am personally inexperienced with it.

You can probably Google for gads of info, though.

MrsB

 

[Outpost JWB]

Since I'm more into natural methods of treatment and would like to avoid using Sevin if I can help it, do any of you have any experience with using Poultry Protector spray? And is there any small amount of insects that is considered "normal" on chickens, or is zero the actual norm for a healthy bird?

Zero is the actual norm. I have never used anything other than Sevin. I have heard the same as @MrsBrooke mentioned with coconut oil. But it's messy. They say it works in humans as well for lice.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are good links with pictures to help with lice or mites:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/08/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification.html
http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140

 

[Sarah3]

It definitely appears to be lice. I was able to inspect him last night after dark and saw no evidence of mites, but quite a lot of lice which would scurry away from the light of the flashlight. Bleh, gave me the heeby-jeebies.

One thing I am confused about thought is how lice would cause the stumbling/jerking head behavior. Any ideas?

This morning the rooster seems just like yesterday morning. If I approach him, he starts jerking his head, and will especially exhibit the behavior of stumbling if I am trying to catch him (so he is running away). The jerking of the head is somewhat rhythmic, so he will do it over and over for a short period.

I did manage to catch to hens this morning to look at them. As best one person can, I looked at the feathers on their bellies and under one wing. One one, I saw nothing at all. On the other I saw one tiny louse only. No evidence of eggs on either of them nor on the rooster who is exhibiting this behavior.

I was planning to try the bath method today on any of them that I could find any lice on, but unfortunately my 7-year-old daughter has woken up with the flu and a high temperature so I'm not sure if I'll be able to do anything like that today. Poor thing has been so worried about her chickens and her favorite rooster that I think that is part of what made her get sick. It is actually her flock that she saved up to buy and has been tending so she could have an egg business.

Anyhow, thanks to you all for your help and any more advice is always appreciated.

 

[Outpost JWB]

I think the roo is just displaying this behavior to show you something is wrong. One of my roos did a head shaking-almost constant-for a few days until I found he had red mites and treated them all for that. The day after treatment he stopped the head shaking. I was ready to treat the poor guy for gapeworm, infection, I was pulling at straws.

 

[Sarah3]

Oh, that is interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Sarah3]

In case you helpful folks would like an update, here's what's been going on with our rooster:

-The strange stumbling and head-jerking behavior decreased day-by-day since Monday (when it began). He had none of that behavior at all by yesterday (Thursday) morning.

-I did give the rooster (and all of the other chickens) a homeopathic remedy for lice on Monday.

-I kept the rooster separated from the flock most of the week. My daughter was so worried about her rooster that she got sick on Tuesday/Wednesday, so I was unable to do any lice treatments during that time.

-In the meantime, I was able to capture and inspect 6 other chickens for lice. I only saw one louse on our other rooster, one on one of the hens, and none on the others I inspected. No sign of eggs on any of the chickens. (So best I can figure is that there were eggs in the recent load of manure we had delivered, which hatched and then mostly infested the rooster for whatever reason).

-The lice on the rooster became more obviously lice as the week went on. When I had looked on Monday, they were so tiny and white that it was hard to tell. As the week progressed, they grew enough and turned more brown-colored so that they looked like the pictures I've seen on the internet.

-Yesterday we had a freak snow storm and the poor rooster was outside looking like a drowned rat. I was finally able to treat the rooster in a soap bath followed by a vinegar bath. I gave him a bath in warm water with a combination of Dr. Bronner's lavender castille soap and 7th Gen dish liquid. Soaked him in there for ~7 minutes. Then rinsed for ~ 5 minutes him in water mixed with raw apple cider vinegar. I was able to see the dead lice floating in the water.

We had an unusual (for us) 6 inches of snow yesterday (we live in the desert of southen New Mexico, so that much snow is quite a rarity). The temperatures were so cold that I really wanted to get the rooster back with the flock to keep him warm (as it was 14 degrees F this morning). So after his bath yesterday, I used a blow dryer to dry him off. (In case anyone wants to know, it takes 40 minutes to fully blow dry a rooster with his winter feathers on!!) During the very lengthy process of drying him, I was able to inspect the rooster very well. No sign of lice eggs anywhere. His skin did look somewhat irritated, but no more lice were present after the bath.

Of course I couldn't wash his head/upper neck very well, so there may have still been some present there. I then let the rooster back with the flock and he resumed his usual place. He seems very happy and healthy after the bath. I did see one of the hens gently pecking all around his face and neck after he joined them, so hopefully she was removing any more lice. I'll keep an eye on things and plan to do another bath next week if there are any more lice (along with baths for any other chickens that have lice). Hopefully by then it will warm up enough that I won't have to do such thorough blow drying.

Sorry this is so long-winded!