new rooster sounds like he is congested, smells bad and has a small discharge from his nose

[rvanda]

I have a new 4 month old rooster and I noticed he sounds like he is growling sometimes when he breathes. He looks healthy to me but he does have a musty odor. I attributed that to his digging in the moist dirt in my yard and dust bathing. Today I noticed a bit of dried goop on his nose, not a lot, just a smear of it. He eats and drinks and is active, perhaps not as active as my chickens but he seems a bit cautious in his new environment. And yes, he has been near my other chickens. He is in a separate cage but close enough that they are probably at risk.
I am a new chicken owner and would appreciate it if those of you who have been through this could give me your opinion. Is he ill and what should I be watching for and is it something that will haunt my flock forever?

I did try to research it for myself but just couldn't tell from what I read. Thanks in advance.

 

[Pyxis]

Is the smell kind of like roadkill? If so, it could be coryza, which you do not want in your flock. If that's the case, I would cull this rooster immediately and hope it didn't spread to your others. Coryza is not a nice disease. In fact, no respiratory illnesses in chickens are. They are treatable, but only the symptoms, and they always come back again when the birds are stressed. If it was my flock, personally I'd cull the rooster. Not worth taking chances to me.

 

[rvanda]

He doesn't smell like road kill, just musty. I think I am just paranoid - when I picked him up he sounded fine and then started this kind of congested thing again but my husband listened and said he is growling at me. Do roosters growl?

 

[Quailridge]

What have you found out about your rooster? I have a rooster that just started sounding like he is snoring.

 

[rvanda]

I have him quarantined from the rest of my birds but he seems healthy. Eats, drinks and runs around. I am going to wait another 20 days before integrating him in. Wish I knew for sure. He still makes that growling noise sometimes.