Is my rooster ok? Strange behaviour...

[chicknmania]

Also, I want to tell you that some of the things you read about ATB can be scary. It can be transmissable to humans but only in very rare cases where you have a very compromised immune system (like cancer) and are regularly handling the birds, and then it's still unlikely. Our birds who had it were both positively diagnosed by necropsy, and I learned a great deal about the disease from the state vets, and by reading. It is NOT a reportable disease here (meaning mandatory cull) though it may be some places.
No worries, for the most part, re catching it, there is a lot of hyped up information about it. Just, as always, use normal hygiene after you've been handling your birds, which you would do anyway.

 

[EssleyJane]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to update you all on what happened with Kelloogs. Sadly, he had to be sent to Rooster Heaven as it was the kindest thing for him.

In the end, it turned out he had avian tb. In case it helps anyone else, here's a rundown of his symptoms.

First, he started to sit down more often. While the hens were scratching around the garden, he'd be sitting down just watching. Then he started sleeping whilst sitting. He got really lethargic.
Over the months that we had him (we got him quite young, I reckon we had him between the ages of 5 and 9 months) he never really grew much, and he only attempted to start crowing once but soon gave up. He was silent for most of his life. He ate heartily, but never put on weight. His face also turned a yellow-y colour.
He did have some gunk in one of his eyes, but this may have been a secondary infection rather than syptoms of the tb.
Towards the end, he lost his balance and could hardly walk. He'd try and run out of the coop but he'd hold out a wing for balance and not get very far before he fell over. He would sit down to eat too, and sleep on the floor at night rather than jumping up on the perch with the hens.
He also started to "gasp" - he'd breathe through his mouth and the breath would come in gasps. He had white diarrhea too, a classic sign of tb I'm told.

I'm hoping that this may help someone identify what's wrong with their chicken, there is nothing I could do to help him and I wish I had not left it so long before putting him out of his misery.

 

[chkn]

Could he be getting eaten alive by the mites?

 

[spish]

so sorry to hear about kelloogs

was the avian flu diagnosis given by a vet or self diagnosed? im wondering because you mention the yellow skin.
ive just been through something similar with a muscovy duck, (lethargic, yellowing face/skin, always sleeping etc) then came the problems breathing as his lungs gave up... turned out he'd eaten something that slowly poisoned him, it started shutting down his liver first then his other organs.. he didnt survive. maybe kelloogs ate something he shouldnt have?
id just expect to see the other chickens affected if it was avian flu?