Lethargic Rooster

[deborah]

Our Black Copper Marans 2-year-old rooster hasn't been himself for 2 days. He is very lethargic. Sleeping with his head down frequently. This morning, he was the last one off the roost (very unusual). His comb is turning purple toward the back. I'm not sure if he is eating; we will check his crop this evening, assuming he is still alive.

Also, our older hens are moving more slowly (4-5 years old). We have 4 hens 4-5 years old, 1 hen 2 years old, 6 hens 1 year old and 6 pullets.. For the last 4 days, egg production has fallen off the cliff. 2 yesterday, and 0 the day before. 1 and 2 the previous days.

We have added diatomaceous earth to their food and added it to the nest boxes. We've put teramiacin in their water and this morning we put Invermectin on the rooster. (It was what we had)

We don't see any mites. Is this worms? Does anyone have any ideas what our problem is?

 

[Eggcessive]

How much Terramycin are you using? I would be tempted to only treat him with an oral dosage, to make sure that he is getting enough, and to not treat your others since they are not sick. Does he have any signs of a respiratory disease?

Ivermectin is not as effective for worming as it once was. It works well for mites or lice when given at a proper dose. Can you take in some droppings to a vet for a fecal test? SafeGuard liquid goat wormer and Valbazen are good wormers that will kill most chicken worms safely.

I would check his crop to see if it is empty and flat, full, hard, or soft and puffy. Feel to see if he has lost weight in his breast muscles. I would vive him some Poultry NutriDrench 2-3 ml daily for a boost. Offer some wet chicken feed, scrambled egg, or canned tuna which might get him eating.

 

[deborah]

Thank you Eggcessive for the advice. I ordered Valbazen today; it should be here Monday. The rooster seemed much better today. Not totally his usual self, but not sleeping most of the day either. But our bad news is that one of the older hens (my favorite of course) died. We heard a commotion outside and it looked like the rooster was breeding her. My first thought was "Good, he's feeling better." But when the rooster got off of her, she didn't get up. The rooster moved to her head checking her out. My husband ran out and she was limp. It appeared she had thrown up; there was food in her beak and it was coming out as he picked her up. He tried to blow air into her beak, but it didn't work. We buried her. Sad day.

We still are not sure what's wrong with the flock. We've used Rooster Booster in the past, but couldn't find it locally. My husband ordered in from Amazon today. They are fed organic feed and we've been adding diatomaceous earth the last three days. We wet the feed. I plan to make scrambled eggs and rice for them tomorrow. No eggs yesterday and only 1 today. We were averaging 8 or 9 a day before this started.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss of the hen unexpectedly. If you still have the body, keep it cold in a cooler with ice, and send it in to the state poultry vet. It sounds like she might have choked on crop contents, especially if she had a filled crop or a crop problem. Here is a list of state poultry vets:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

Glad that your rooster was feeling better.