My rooster is suddenly lethargic and is barely eating

[heatherdevito1]

I have two indoor house chickens who are extremely bonded. One is a naked neck silkie hen and the other is Americana Rooster. This is who I refer to as the reluctant rooster. He didn't crow until he was over 8 months old and he crows once every two weeks or so. Q-Tip, our naked neck, is recovering from wry neck right now which is taking up quite a bit of our time and during her illness, I noticed that Einstein, our rooster, has stopped eating, has become lethargic, and doesn't come out of the tub. They have a very specific routine everyday. These two are absolutely inseparable! Q-Tip exits the tub first, squawking her way to the living room with Einstein right behind. He hasn't left the tub since she became ill. I've taken him out but he's so lethargic and weak that he wobbles and falls over. His comb is red, but his comb has always flopped over his eye so it's hard to tell if it's droopier than usual. He's underweight and I've been trying to feed him scrambled eggs, black oiled sunflower seeds, spinach and carrot scrambled eggs, anything he used to love to try to get him to eat. He takes a few bites then collapses again. He hasn't crowed in weeks but he's still drinking water, just not eating. I'm so afraid he's not going to make it, and between the two of them now, I wonder if maybe he's just so upset that Q-Tip is sick that he has given up. Q-Tip is getting better everyday but he just seems to have given up. He was originally brought inside because he started limping and he's such a docile rooster, he was being picked on. The vet gave him a long-acting antibiotic to due some inflammation around his leg joint and a few days later, his tail puffed up and he crowed for the first time. His limp had gotten better but now he's just in a bad way all-around. I've also added rooster booster to his water and gave him some poly-visol to get him some nutrients.

Can anyone give me some suggestions or should I just take him back to the vet?

 

[Eggcessive]

I would be a little concerned that they both could have symptoms of Mareks disease. Were they vaccinated? Wry neck and limping are symptoms, although those both can be symptoms of injuries, vitamin deficiency, or others. I would try offering mostly moist chicken feed, but add a little tuna or ground chicken to tempt him. What do his droppings look like? Is he lame or able to walk?

 

[heatherdevito1]

The vet diagnosed the wry neck when we brought Q-Tip in Sunday night and attributed it to genetics since we give them good food supplemented with fresh fruits and vegetables. Einstein had a limp a few months ago from an injury in the yard and we continued to keep them both in the house because once they were recuperated, it was too cold out, and they hadn't had a chance to acclimate to the weather change. His droppings look the same as usual, brown, soft, the usual gross poop. When we have to take Q-Tip out to hold her during a spastic wet neck episode, he seems to miss her, and she misses him. As soon as I can get them back together, they just swoon over each other. I'll do some research on Marek's disease and see if that fits his description. Thanks!

 

[heatherdevito1]

I would be a little concerned that they both could have symptoms of Mareks disease. Were they vaccinated? Wry neck and limping are symptoms, although those both can be symptoms of injuries, vitamin deficiency, or others. I would try offering mostly moist chicken feed, but add a little tuna or ground chicken to tempt him. What do his droppings look like? Is he lame or able to walk?

He is able to walk, but he's a little wobbly, then he plops down to rest. He ate scrambled eggs with spinach this morning and I'm making some strawberry cinnamon pancakes now. They both love pancakes and waffles. That should get him to eat.

 

[Eggcessive]

Be careful giving so much food other than their chicken feed, which has a balance of nutrients and vitamins they need. It would be good to tempt him with a high protein food, then get him back on chicken feed.

 

[heatherdevito1]

Be careful giving so much food other than their chicken feed, which has a balance of nutrients and vitamins they need. It would be good to tempt him with a high protein food, then get him back on chicken feed.

Their primary diet is a 19% protein layer feed. The other stuff is just what I mix in to give them additional nutrients, especially in winter when they can't forage. They probably get about 15%, maybe even 20% of their diet from sources other than chicken feed during the winter months. It'll drop to 10-15% come spring.

 

[cmom]

How old is your {Showgirl (Naked Neck Silkie)} and your male? I have mixed a little of the Poly-Vi-Sol W/O IRON with some feed and fed that to a bird I had that was not well. It did help as well as some water. The bird did eventually recover. Here we don't have any vets that deal with poultry but if you do wherever you live, maybe it would be a good idea to take you male to your vet. Good luck...

 

[heatherdevito1]

How old is your {Showgirl (Naked Neck Silkie)} and your male? I have mixed a little of the Poly-Vi-Sol W/O IRON with some feed and fed that to a bird I had that was not well. It did help as well as some water. The bird did eventually recover. Here we don't have any vets that deal with poultry but if you do wherever you live, maybe it would be a good idea to take you male to your vet. Good luck...

Thanks! My naked neck hen is two and my americana rooster is almost one. I've been giving him the poly-visol without iron for a couple of days, and we've also added rooster booster to their water, but to err on the side of caution, I called our vet and he's going in for a check-up either today or tomorrow.

 

[heatherdevito1]

Einstein saw the vet today and he was unable to find anything specifically wrong with him, but since the long-acting antibiotic worked well for him previously, he gave him a shot of that, and also gave him a deworming shot just in case. I'll watch him in the next few days for improvement.