I recently got a rooster and am keeping him in quarantine for the moment (5 days so far). He’s living indoors in a spare room where I open the windows to keep it the same temperatures as outdoors. My rooster is a sweetheart; very affectionate and gentle. He was being rehomed because he was getting bullied by another roo. Having never quarantined a bird before, this is a new experience for me. I’ve done my best to read up but still have a couple of questions I couldn't find exact answers to.
Regarding the length of quarantine, I see everything from 2 weeks to 60 days and I know a lot of people ask about it. The reason for quarantine of course is to wait through the incubation periods. Most of the diseases I’ve read about have fairly short incubation periods on that scale. I guess HPAI would be one of the longer ones at supposedly up to 21 days although it was never clear to me if that was chickens or another species (chickens are quoted as 3-14 days by APHIS’s own info). I know some will just say “longer is just better,” but longer is not necessarily all good in a limited quarantine setup like mine if there isn’t something specific to watch for, since it will just stress the animal more. Aside from HPAI, what specifically would I be looking for past roughly the two week mark that would be indicative of a disease or parasite rather than potentially just stress from the quarantine itself?
One other question: should I worm him preventatively (since right now I have the opportunity to just worm him, not the whole flock) or should I only do that if I can get a fecal float that comes back with a problematic diagnosis?
I do have one thing I'm treating him for right now, which is a small number of chicken lice (he free ranged a bit I think, no big surprise). It seemed recent and a very small number. I dusted him once already with permethrin and will repeat in a few days along with a full litter change.
Boredom is also going to be a big challenge for me with the quarantine – he’s just not interested in a lot of the food-based entertainment that works with my hens. He eats plenty, but only really from the food bowl when by himself. He wants to forage socially not on his own. If I give him a big hunk of lettuce he will only work on it while I'm in the room.
Regarding the length of quarantine, I see everything from 2 weeks to 60 days and I know a lot of people ask about it. The reason for quarantine of course is to wait through the incubation periods. Most of the diseases I’ve read about have fairly short incubation periods on that scale. I guess HPAI would be one of the longer ones at supposedly up to 21 days although it was never clear to me if that was chickens or another species (chickens are quoted as 3-14 days by APHIS’s own info). I know some will just say “longer is just better,” but longer is not necessarily all good in a limited quarantine setup like mine if there isn’t something specific to watch for, since it will just stress the animal more. Aside from HPAI, what specifically would I be looking for past roughly the two week mark that would be indicative of a disease or parasite rather than potentially just stress from the quarantine itself?
One other question: should I worm him preventatively (since right now I have the opportunity to just worm him, not the whole flock) or should I only do that if I can get a fecal float that comes back with a problematic diagnosis?
I do have one thing I'm treating him for right now, which is a small number of chicken lice (he free ranged a bit I think, no big surprise). It seemed recent and a very small number. I dusted him once already with permethrin and will repeat in a few days along with a full litter change.
Boredom is also going to be a big challenge for me with the quarantine – he’s just not interested in a lot of the food-based entertainment that works with my hens. He eats plenty, but only really from the food bowl when by himself. He wants to forage socially not on his own. If I give him a big hunk of lettuce he will only work on it while I'm in the room.
