My poor rooster rescued yesterday, HELP?

guthriesbuffs

Hatching
5 Years
Nov 13, 2014
1
0
7
Hello everyone! New here! My husband called me yesterday asking if I wanted this beautiful black rooster. He was working at a resident, that had this poor rooster enclosed in a 8'X8' completely covered pen, dirty water, no food. He said the people who lived there now had sold the house to my husbands new client and that they needed to get rid of the rooster and the pen. My husband knowing how much I love animals and how I've taken in other sickly animals and gotten them well. And yes we have a lot of animals, a small farm. BUT, even though we have raised chickens, Buff Orps, I have never had a sick chicken. this poor rooster looks fine and beautiful at first glance, crows, clucks, feisty, breathing seems normal, but his legs and feet are a pitiful mess! His legs and feet are covered in this thick pale scaly skin, he has one toe missing, one other toe hanging by a thread of skin, ALL claws are extra long, or hanging, and his spurs are about 5" long curled up against his legs. He also has a white substance attached to his neck feathers. I'm pretty sure he has a vitamin D deficiency. No sunshine at all my husband said. That could explain broken toes, jumping or falling from roosts probably. And there is no telling what parasites and/or bacteria he could be carrying, that my chickens or myself could contract. My question is, to chicken lovers like myself, should I try to heal him of all his obvious and unseen problems and maybe give him some happy chicken life or should I put him down? Would love some opinions. My family who aren't the chicken lover that I am, only worries for me and my other healthy babies. Thank you
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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Sorry about this rooster. You might post a pic of him so we can see just how bad off he is.

As for his scaly feet and legs, sounds like leg scale mites. Wash up his legs with a gentle soap and water. Rinse. You will want to gently rub vaseline on the legs and toes really well. Don't pick the scales off, but get the vaseline rubbed in well so it gets up under the scales. Some people use olive oil. Ivermectin will also take care of leg scale mites too. If you go with the vaseline, repeat this every day until all the scaly gunk falls off. The vaseline will help to soften it.

As for the spurs, you might remove his spurs completely. Here is a great thread on trimming or removing spurs...https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/37548/removing-trimming-rooster-spurs

Get him wormed. He no doubt is loaded with worms. Use either Safeguard Liquid Goat wormer or Valbazen. If he is a standard size breed: 1/2 cc each day for 3 days. For bantam types: 1/4 cc each day for 3 days. Valbazen, same dosage for the breed sizes, however it is given once every 3 days for 9 days. I like to mix liquid meds in 1 cc of Gerber Baby food and put on the front of the tongue with a syringe.

Get him on a good diet of some sort of flock raiser feed. No layer feed. I would put some probiotics in his water for a while to help boost his immune system. And just give him lots of love. Unless he looks like he is near death, I personally think he deserves a good chance to survive.

Good luck with your new boy and keep us posted over time on his recovery!!
 
You have good advice from TwoCrows.

Hope the rooster recovers.

You can also post to emergencies forum for more input. And photos will always offer more info for advice.

Welcome, glad you joined us.
 
I also think he deserves saving unless he is in horrible shape and possibly contagious. Do you have a place to quarantine him? A picture would help greatly.
 
Welcome! Good advise from two crows. It sounds like your rooster has leg mites and from what you describe about a white substance attached to his neck feathers, he may have face mites too.
I would give him a bath and then follow two crows advice. Good luck.
 

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