I need some advice regarding a rooster that is not thriving...

[radiodog]

I cannot get weight on this rooster. I make sure he get plenty of food and water, plus supplements. He is a bantam and was thin when I got him. I've had him for 9 mths. He is still as thin as the day I got him. I'm prepared to isolate him and hit him hard with whatever is suggested. I appreciate anyone advice/ideas. Thanks, dr

 

[gritsar]

Has he been wormed that you know of?

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Quote:
That was going to be my first question also.

 

[radiodog]

yes...when I first got him (I got 4 chickens at the same time so I wormed everybody), but not since then. I found some other posts about skinny chickens and plan to set him up inside and monitor his food & water intake. For a sick dog I mix baby ceral w/ cooked egg, milk/water, boiled ground turkey (just a little) and cottage cheese...maybe this mixture will work for a skinny chicken. I didn't know about frozen veggies but will add those too. I wonder if a chicken can handle Nutri-Cal? I'll free feed crumbles & scratch.
He seems to go through periods of feeling bad...he gets real docile and wants to be held...then he makes a turn around and becomes like a regular chicken. He is really beautiful.
Would it be too risky to worm him again in his weakened state? I know a whole lot more about dogs than I do chickens, but I'm thinking maybe the same principles would work.....

 

[gritsar]

Your plan sounds worth a shot. Did you use a broad-spectrum wormer or wazine (which only treats roundworms)?
If you only used wazine I would use a broad spectrum wormer.
When one of my hens that has a weight problem is having trouble, I give her lots of carbs. - her favorites are bread and macaroni and cheese and she bulks right up again.

 

[radiodog]

That looks correct...its been so long ago....I just remember it was a short, funny name. Guy at feed store sold it to me....he said it was a chicken wormer and that I needed to worm my newly acquired chickens. What is a name brand of a broad-spectrum wormer? I'm not totally trusting of the feed store to sell me the right product. The food they said I needed was total crap. Wish I had found this site BEFORE I bought my chickens.


thanks for your help!

 

[gritsar]

Feed store personnel are notorious for giving bad chicken advice.
There are several broad spectrum wormers you can use, none of them are cheap. Most are cattle or sheep wormers and you just adjust the dose for chickens.
I like valbazen (albendazole). It treats liver flukes, tapeworms, stomach worms, intestinal worms and lungworms. You give 1/2 cc orally, undiluted for standard birds, 1/4 cc for bantams. The huge bottle I got cost $35, but it's good for a long time. Draw the correct amount up into a needle-less syringe. If the roo doesn't want to open his beak for administering just tug gently on his wattles, the beak will open.
You can also use ivermectin pour-on (also a cattle wormer). You apply 1/2 cc (1/4 cc for bantams) to the back of the neck, on the skin. Be sure you get good skin contact.
With the roo it doesn't matter, but if you treat hens with either of these it's recommended that you discard the eggs for two weeks. Albendazole is what's commonly used to treat humans with worms.
Some folks say that to be totally safe in case of a suspected heavy worm load, you should first worm with the wazine, wait two weeks and then hit them with the broad spectrum. This is to prevent the dead worms from jamming up the chicken's system and killing them.
If he's with your flock it's probably a good idea to worm everybody.
If you happen to know anyone that raises cattle, you might ask them for a syringe full of the ivermectin. That's where I got mine, from a cattle farming neighbor.

 

[debtrag]

Quote:
I need to question this amount. I read a post earlier about cattle ivermectin on chickens and the dosage was varied as to size. 1 drop for very small bantams, up to 6 drops for giant fowl. I know that there are 22 drops in a .8 ml of advantage for a cat over 10 lbs (1/2 cc would be close to 10 drops, 1/4 cc would be approx 5 drops). I hope someone chimes in if this could be considered a comparison in drops verses ml's/cc's. I need to worm mine and I have cattle ivermectin in the cabinet ready to apply, I don't want to overdose my chickens.

 

[gritsar]

Ivermectin is very hard to overdose with.
Here's a thread on it, for more information:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2525157#p2525157

If you want to be totally accurate, you could weigh each bird; but if you have more than a few birds that could get complicated.