My rooster is depressed, please help

[Romeo the Rooster]

Please help, my rooster is acting depressed. He had been acting normal in the past months but has recently been acting distant and sad. There are quite a few possible reasons. We have 3 other roosters, 1 of which picks on him occasionally. But nobody ever gets seriously injured. It is obvious that he is at the bottom of the rooster pecking order. He doesn’t have any girlfriends but it hasn’t seemed to really affected him. It is February currently and pretty cold here, his (small ) comb is kinda purple. But all of the other chickens seem perfectly fine?!?! He does still eat and drink with a little bit of prompting from me. His droppings are very liquidy. Most of the day he just stands inside by himself. I am worried and confused as to whether it is chicken depression, or illness. Please help me, he is a really sweet boy and I want to help him.

 

[NatJ]

And, I noticed you repeatedly mentioning checking to make sure his crop is emptying. What significance does that have?

In a healthy chicken, the crop is empty when they first wake up in the morning. Then they start eating, and the crop has some food in it all day long. Just before bedtime they usually stuff their crop as full as it can be, so they can be digesting that food during the night.

But if the crop is not empty in the morning, then it might have stuff just sitting there instead of getting digested. And if the crop is always partly full of the same stuff all the time (not getting digested), then the chicken will not feel hungry, so it will not eat, but it will be actually starving (losing weight, having no energy, feeling miserable) because it's not eating/digesting enough food.

For what to feed the chicken now: definitely leave the usual food available until you get some other chicken food. He may not eat much of it, but even a little would be better than none. I mean in addition to whatever else you may be offering him to eat.

You can try wetting some of your usual chicken food with water, because chickens often like it better that way. You could do that with layer feed, grower feed, chick starter--any kind of chicken feed, pelleted or crumbled, can have water added. (And if the rooster won't eat the wet food, just give it to your other chickens before it has a chance to go bad.)

Chickens seem to like wet chicken food just as much as they like oatmeal, and it's better balanced nutritionally, and it's faster to make

 

[Romeo the Rooster]

The report says he died of multi organ lymphoma. He had cancer and there was really no way of knowing that until now.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We have 3 other roosters, 1 of which picks on him occasionally. But nobody ever gets seriously injured. It is obvious that he is at the bottom of the rooster pecking order. He doesn’t have any girlfriends but it hasn’t seemed to really affected him. It is February currently and pretty cold here, his (small ) comb is kinda purple

Place him in a pen by himself with his own food/water. What type of food do you give?
If possible get a fecal to check for worms and coccidiosis. Make sure his crop is emptying overnight as well.

Are all 3 roosters penned or do they free range with the ladies? How much space do you have?

 

[Romeo the Rooster]

Unfortunately, he has just passed away. I was taking him out to feed him when his head dropped. He had a seizure, and died in my arms. We are taking him to NC State for a necropsy. Hopefully it’s nothing contagious. Thank you all so much for your help. It really helped me have a sense of hope, even if there was none. Once again, thank you.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

layer feed with furtrell

I would pen him separate and make sure he's eating/drinking well. Even free range they can be picked at and kept from food.

If getting a fecal float is not possible, then I would be inclined to de-worm him and treat for Coccidiosis. You can find Corid and Safeguard at Tractor Supply.

Safeguard dose is .23ml per pound of weight given orally once a day for 5 days.

Dose for Liquid Corid is 2 teaspoons per gallon of water or Powdered Corid is 1 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water. Give for 5-7 days as the only source of drinking water.
Don't add anything else to the water except for Corid.

Make sure his crop is emptying overnight.

How old is this rooster? I would give him some extra protein too or chick starter. Not a fan of giving roosters layer feed, but a lot of people do, so that's just a personal preference of mine.

 

[NatJ]

That is currently what I am treating him for. I’m mostly just keeping him warm and making sure he eats and drinks.

Makes sense Treat what you know is wrong, and see how much else gets better too. Then you'll be in a better position to figure out what else (if anything) you're dealing with.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

He is 1 year old. I currently have him by himself but he doesn’t seem super enthusiastic about eating. He is just standing. We have powder Corid because we had a chick that had coccidiosis about 5 months ago. He did not have contact with the chick. The chick recovered fully and we assumed it was gone.

To me, your rooster appears to be unwell.

You need to make sure he's drinking well and eating. Check to make sure his crop is emptying overnight.

Chickens do build resistance to Coccidia that are found in their environment but if they are not well, they can have an overload. Coccidia are always in the environment (in the soil and in poop).

Getting a fecal float is the best way to know if you need to treat or not - so gather up a sample and take it to your vet. IF that is not possible, then consider treating for worms and coccidiosis.
The poop is not normal.

If he's not enthusiastic about eating, then think out of the box and try a few other things. See if he will eat wet feed or a bits of scrambled egg.

 

[NatJ]

I had no idea. All of my chickens eat the same food and the other roosters seem perfectly fine. Thanks

Layer feed is meant to have the right amount of calcium for a hen that is laying eggs, which is more than other chickens need.
In other respects, layer feed is not much different than most other chicken feeds.

It's pretty well proven that "too much" calcium for "too long" can cause health problems in any chicken. How much is too much, and how long is too long, depends on a bunch of things, and I don't know all of them.

Apparently some roosters eat layer feed and have problems, while some other roosters can eat layer feed and never show any symptoms (they might actually be fine, or they might have problems that are not serious enough for us to notice. Probably some each way.)

The hens can be fine eating all-flock feed, or grower feed, or chick starter, as long as you also have a dish of oyster shell that they can eat for calcium. And the roosters and any chicks can also be fine eating all-flock feed, or grower feed, or chick starter. The ones that do not need as much calcium will mostly ignore the oyster shell. They may have a nibble on occasion to see what it is, but chickens of all ages can usually be trusted to eat the right amount of oyster shell for their own needs. Plenty of people feed their chickens this way, with a low calcium feed that is fine for all ages of chickens and then oyster shell available free choice.

I have no idea whether layer feed is why YOUR rooster is unwell, just trying to explain the reason why some people say not to feed layer feed to roosters.

 

[Romeo the Rooster]

Thank you guys so much. If he doesn’t show signs of improvement within the week, we will consider taking him to a vet. We try not to because it’s not very local and it’s expensive. I really hope he gets better and I thank you for your support and advice.