Need help with roo loosing feather's *pics*

[fourfeathers]

Hi All,
I too, have a frizzle roo, who has a similar feather problem. It is mostly on his tail, but his wings look like yours, too. It seemed to start when he had a plugged preening gland that he fiddled with. Since then, I am sure he is a self-picker (he is with only hens and his girls have various degrees of special needs...so unless he stood right in front of them and let them peck him...). Anyway, he also seems to have somewhat 'brittle' seeming feathers. They just tend to break off easily and seem fragile when growing in-soemtimes don't mature past the sheathed stage before breaking. Have tried hot pick (didn't seem to do anything but turn his feathers pink) and also make sure the gland doesn't clog again. I will try to up his protein as suggested-he doesn't like scrambled eggs or cottage cheese. Any other suggestions? Will do the polyvisol, too. He does Not have any bugs or parasites, have checked. I wonder if he is a bit of a frazzle with bad feathering. Will take a pic tomorrow and post. Glad someone started this post, he looks pitiful. Any other suggestions welcome.

 

[ivan3]

Get some mealworms and let him work on those for a while (pretty easy to propagate if you don't want to buy them).

If he'll eat pellets you might try Manna-Pro poultry or Gamebird conditioner (same folks who make calf manna) or, Forage Cakes from Farmers helper. These are somewhat pricey. A little bowl of canned salmon a day might do the trick.

The guy who is involved with the forage cakes is a member here. He appears to know gallinaceous bird diets to a fare-thee-well (though he's yet to post his testing results):

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=140469

Some less likely sources of problems, but I thought I'd post them:

Iodine deficiency causes delayed moulting and feather disorders, as it is the usual cause of thyroid deficiency. The thyroid will become enlarged and may cause dyspnea, with a `squeaky’ breathing and a change in vocalization.
Lack of suphur-containing amino acids (commonly deficient in all-seed diets) and polyunsaturated fatty acids affects the plumage. The feathers appear dry and brittle. Their feather barbs fail to interlock, and the feathers look hairy instead of intact.
From: Avian Medicine, Tully/Martin/Lawton/Dorrestein​

 

[fourfeathers]

Well, that is interesting. Thank you Ivan. The thyroid/iodine deficiency caught my eye. Flash tends to be somewhat of a wheezer if overexerted. You can hear his squeaky breathing....hmmm. I tried the manna pro pellets....won't touch them, picky little dude.

 

[Barnyard]

Well my little roo is not wheezing, sneezing, coughin, or anything to that affect. He is just going bold

 

[ivan3]

I'd like to think this was the result of feather degrading bacteria or keratinophylic fungi owing to our domestic breed's loss of evolutionary `fitness' (no longer as well defended as their wild kin). But, alas, that is one grant proposal I'll never write (`send 40,000 leghorns and don't hold the supplementary funding...'

).

We fed our roo crushed Brazil Nuts (grandkids won't eat them from mixed nuts and Cass was just bagging and freezing them) along with scrambled eggs with some leftover minced pork roast (also frozen for posterity). He is the RSL in our avatar. It still took nearly two months before feathers came in (but nothing like those `stripped' feather shafts on your guy).

The common reasons: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/mf2308.pdf

And, to actually delve into the dermatology: http://www.avianmedicine.net/ampa/24.pdf

 

[purpletree23]

Keep us posted Barnyard. !!

 

[Roy]

I have a hen that looks the same way, caught another hen in the act of pulling her feathers out while she was mounted on top of her. I have another hen who has no feathers at all on top of her head. Same thing, caught another hen who had her down pulling her feathers out. I have not come up with a solution for this tho...

 

[Kung Foo Chicken]

My D'uccle hens were doing that to the roo. He had feather mites before so maybe that got them started eating the mites. They didn't act violent it looked like love bites. The hens were doing it at night on the roost. I finally caught her reaching over and pulling out a feather. I put neosporin on his neck and the hens apparently didn't like the flavor and let his feathers grow back.