Is my rooster ok? Strange behaviour...

Sounds like he might be fighting some kind of infection. Hopefully you can find sulfa or terramycin, there was someone from Africa on here once in a similar situation and they did finally find an antibiotic locally. But if you can't, try washing the eye with saline, if you can get the human eye wash kind, allergy eye drops, anything like that. If you can find baby vitamins in liquid form, they will work for vitamins, if you search on here you can find the dosage to use. Failing that, a poultry vet told me once that the most important thing you can do for a sick chicken is get them to eat. Considering how much the healthy ones eat all day long, you want to make sure he is eating a lot. Feed him whatever he likes, especially things like scrambled or crumbled hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal, fresh fruits and veggies, whatever. I would go ahead and treat him for lice or mites anyway, if you have anything to use for that. Finally, you could check www.firststatevetsupply.com; they would ship you stuff although I don't know what the shipping costs would be like...and, Peter Brown, who runs the site, would give you some advice also, he is an expert and could probably help you...don't know if his advice is still free or not, but you could check to see. I guess if I were you that 'd be one of the things I'd be sure to do, is check with him first thing, cause sometimes it takes a while to get a reply. He also has Q & A sessions similar to this, or at least he used to. Please keep us advised how Kelloggs does....sounds like he is trying to get better.
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If he's young like that, maybe he's wearing himself out breeding the hens and has to nap to recharge his batteries, so to speak?
 
We've never had a roo get worn out from too much breeding, and we've had all ours since they were young......actually it's pretty much the opposite..
 
Hi everyone,

This morning we washed Kelloggs's eye with some saline, got some gunk out and cleaned it up.

Just in case of mites and lice, we gave him a rinse and quick wash with some lightly medicated lice/mite soap. He didn't seem to mind
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While washing I did notice that in some places he doesn't have that many feathers. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the skin, and he has lots of new feathers growing in places, but there's several bald spots. Not sure whether he's supposed to have feathers there, but under the wing (both on the wing and on the body where it joins) is bald, and there's not so many feathers on his legs.

After washing him I then prepared a meal of all the things chicknmania suggested that I had in the kitchen and garden... he ate a bit of this, not a huge amount, but he did show interest in it. I'll do him some warm oatmeal later, with some eggs mixed in as he seemed to like the eggs.

I will definitely look into whether I can get pedialyte, sulfa or terramycin, thanks for the suggestions. Baby vitamins I can probably find at our local supermarket I think.

I'm not certain, but I think today Kelloggs has been standing up more... he still seems to be snoozing while standing, but I'm taking it to be a good sign
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Again thanks so much to everyone that has made suggestions
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**just a quick update, made Kelloggs some oatmeal/eggs for dinner, he ate quite a lot! Will do the same for breakfast too. Thanks for the tip. **
 
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Good, keep us posted. You can try some chopped up fruit, too, they like that.
Or applesauce, yum!
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Maybe the feather loss is from mites/ lice, let's hope so.
When he walks, does he walk ok? No listing to one side, limping?
Did you check for scaly leg mites?
 
I don't know how to advise you re the sulfa, but if you find Terramycin, don't follow
the suggested dose on the label. Use 4 tsp per gallon of water. Terramycin (or Duramycin)
is a very weak antibiotic. Don't know what it's like there, but most feed stores here carry it,
it's very common.
 
I wouldn't worry about the missing feathers/bare spots. You said he's 8 mos or so? THat how old my roo was when he moulted. He had a lot of missing feathers, and I thought something was wrong with him b/c his chest bone stuck out so far. But the lethargy and eye gunk don't sound good. I agree that he must be fighting off an infection. I do think my roo took a few naps daily when he was younger and moulting, but most of the time he was very active and on guard taking care of his girls.
 
Mama24, that's reassuring, yes he's about 8 months I think. It doesn't look like the feathers have dropped out for an obvious reason, and the skin isn't sore, so perhaps he'll fill out again soon!

Chicknmania, yes he walks fine, he can even run if the need arises (like me following him for an eye wash)
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No limping. Checked for anything unusual on his legs, can't see anything.

He is eating the porridge and eggs/ fruit that I'm giving him, but the sitting down and sleeping while standing still persists. Perhaps these extra goodies will give him a boost, enough to fight off whatever seems to be lurking in his system.

No drugs to be had at the local shops, so the hunt continues further afield!

Keeping fingers crossed that he's on the mend.
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