My roo needs your help!

[GreenGoddess]

1) What type of bird , age and weight.

Production red, about a year old, unsure of weight.. around 4 lbs or so...

2) What is the behavior, exactly.

Acting fine, eating, drinking, chasing the girls.. Just being head roo

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?

Little over a week but tonight it was worse!

4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.

Noticed a little over a week ago that his feathers around his vent looked as if he was being pecked.. I separated two other roos from the pen because they started fighting pretty bad.. The skin around his vent seems reddened also but no swelling or anything.. After they were separated for a few days, it was starting to look better

5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.

Unsure.. Need your help!

6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.

Layer crumbles with the girls, goodies such as cabbage 1x a week, cooked beans, rice, tuna juice mixed in treats when we have a can, lentils, cayenne pepper mixed in treats once or twice a week also.. Drinking water normally.. I try to let them free range as much as I can for at least an hour

7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.

Outside of the blood, it's been normal

8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?

Just separating the roos so they wouldn't fight

9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?

I will treat myself

10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

Photos below

11) Describe the housing/bedding in use

They have a dirt run (used to have grass in it!) and their coop is a plastic shed that was converted with pine shavings and dried wheat grass on the floor and pine shavings in the nest boxes..


I don't think it's Cocci.. None of the others a exhibiting any signs or symptoms and he's not acting differently.. There is also blood in the coop and no one is injured.. I looked everyone ever really well and his vent seemed to have a little blood in it .. The pine shavings in the pic look like someone was "dripping" blood... See pics below..

On poop board

Blood in shavings on floor.. Two different spots

Tried to get picks of his vent but he's not my best friend and wasn't happy with me messing with him..

ETA: I have a bad feeling that he got hold of something when I had them out today.. The people in the neighborhood used the backyard as their personal trash dump.. We've gotten rid of most of it but every once in a while I will find something.. If Clucky dug deep enough while scratching, he may have found something we missed.. I try to keep them in a specific area when I let them out to free range.. I gave him some oil soaked bread thinking if there is something scratching his intestines or just inside the vent, maybe it will pass through easier..

Goddess

 

[tnchickenut]

Saw your post had no replies. So here I am (I hated it when no one answered my pleas for help):

By the way it looks, he may have eatten something he shouldn't have. Like glass, metal, ect. and got it halfway through somewhere. The fact that the blood is bright red means (in humans) something like a lesion, ulcer, hemorroid.

I'm sure it is simular for chickens. Biology is biology.

Now, what to do to help. I'm not sure. I wish I was. Your theory about eatting something he shouldn't have... probrably right. If it was a human or dog or something else other than a chicken... they would do surgery. I imagine that is about the only thing to do. I'd say call a vet. It does not look like cocci to me either. The blood is too bright, and you said he was acting fine.

Sorry I couldn't help more. Good luck!

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Quote:
I think this could be the key because the blood is so fresh and bright, and feeding the oil-soaked bread sounds like a good solution to try out. It could help cushion whatever it is in there and hopefully pass it through. I hope he manages to recover--I'll be thinking good thoughts for him!

Sorry I can only reiterate what's already been said, but...I just figured every little bit counts when you're worried about a bird!

 

[Kittymomma]

If he ate something bad I'm not sure what can be done for him--though I think the bread/olive oil can't hurt and might help. In the meantime though supportive care would be good. I'd bring him in so the others won't peck on him and you can monitor his eating, drinking and pooping. If he hangs in there you'll want to put some blu-kote on the red areas when he goes back to the flock so they'll leave it alone while he heals. I wish I had more knowlege/advice for you but that is all I can think of. Late evening is a tough time to post because not as many people are online. I'll check back in the a.m. (W. coast) and see if anybody else finds this. Good luck with him and please update.

 

[Kittymomma]

How's he doing this morning?

 

[GreenGoddess]

I appreciate everyone's help and glad to hear that everyone agrees it's not cocci! WHEW!!! Outside of a CRD/MG scare 6 months ago (found out it was a vitamin a deficiency) my babies have always been healthy! I kept checking on him all last night.. He seemed a lot more "relaxed" than normal.. Putting his head in his wing, not yelling at me when i walked into the coop, not pecking at me when I put my hand towards him.. As I said, he and I are not best friends by ANY stretch of the imagination!!! BUT, I woke up this morning and he was out in the run, crowing as usual.. Doing rooster things.. Scratching, strutting, clucking, fussing at me, etc.. I searched the coop and run thoroughly.. There is no more blood.. I tried looking on the poop board where I knew he was roosting and there is poop but no blood or foreign objects... For now he seems back to his normal self so I guess I will just keep a close eye on him throughout the day and see how he does... I will keep everyone posted! Thank you again!

Goddess

 

[Kittymomma]

Good news, AND it's Friday!

 

[tdgill]

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Phew--I'm glad he seems to be doing better this morning! Hopefully it was just some bleeding somewhere in the digestive system, and it passed and the blood clotted. Let us know if there are any more problems. Otherwise, hoorah for him being back to his usual self!

 

[GreenGoddess]

Well, I cleaned up the area I let them free range in.. Man was there a lot of crap!! Glass, hard plastic, pieces of plastic bags, pieces of tin soda or beer cans, and a bunch of other crap!!!! Most of this crap was under the surface dirt and dried grass!! I hate my neighbors... We have two piles of old wire fencing, glass, plastic, parts of an old tent, omg.. The list goes on and on.. When we moved in, we put everything into piles and burned most of it but there's a lot of stuff that won't burn.. We were going to get rid of it this spring.. I keep the chickens away from it.. I have to watch them because our yard isn't fenced and we have very nasty dogs that run loose in the neighborhood.. So if they start heading towards the piles, I walk them back to the area I want them in.. They are never out of their pen without me.. When we cleaned the yard, there was a LOT of dried wheat grass (about 3 ft high) that we had to cut down and then rake up among everything else and by the time we were one cutting it all the grass was coming in.. Most of the stuff I found must have been hidden under the grass.. We have 3/4 of an acre so raking it is one heck of a chore! BUT, I did rake it really well today.. There is still a section i need to do because the girls for some reason are determined to go over there near the back door but I kept them away from that today... But, after everything was said and done, Clucky pooped and it was back to normal!!!! YAY!

Goddess