noob with a sick rooster .......please help

[Skip Ripple]

Hey guys, I'm new to the site and pretty new to caring for roosters as well. I have two roosters, " brothers " in fact, and one has become ill over the last couple of days. His symptoms include runny green diarrhea, listlessness and what appears to be dark areas (dried mucous) around the eyes and comb. He's visibly thinner but his appetite seems o.k., and under the advice of my local feed store , I started him on Aueromycin(chlortetracycline ) yesterday. Other than my new pal Steve over @ southern states feed & grain, no one (vets-over the phone) seems to be much help in nailing this down.....any advice, do's, don'ts, etc. would be sincerely appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Skip & Colonel Sanders (my rooster)

 

[Judy]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569

In addition, feed, treats, and whether he free has access to a yard, woods, etc. would be helpful.

 

[threehorses]

Well first off, you'll want to make sure that the dosage of the antibiotic you're giving is correct. What brand, what strength (usually it'll be listed in number of grams of antibiotic per package), and how much are you using.

You must use this as labeled but no less than 7 days. It must be made fresh daily, kept out of light (put tinfoil over the clear part of the waterer helps), to be active.

You will also want to give a PRObiotic (non-medicinal form of living bacteria) to clear up the diarrhea which may be a separate issue or the same. You cannot use yogurt with this medicine. You will want to go either to the feed store and pick up some Probios powder (or paste in a pinch), or the vitamin section of a grocer, druggist, or health food store for acidophilis capsules or tablets.

This is VERY important. Your bird is already showing diarrhea which will dehydrate him. The good gut bacteria that usually keep a bird from having diarrhea are going to be harmed by the antibiotic, so you must give him probiotics daily to try to do damage-control and then every day for a week after treatment, and every other day for a week after that. This will help the good bacteria (lactobacilli) to re-colonize the gut and prevent secondary yeast/fungal infections and worse.

If you weren't treating with meds in the water, I would highly advise a poultry vitamin/electrolyte supplement. however they cannot be mixed. So instead, I recommend that you pick up a poultry vitamin/electrolyte supplement and make a small amount of it (as labeled - just a cup's worth) and use that to wet some of the birds' crumbles to make a damp mash at least once daily for him. Birds who are ill are usually reluctant to eat. However, damp (not wet) mashes are often more tempting to them. You can also put the probiotic in that mash to get him to eat it. Just make a tiny bit. The electrolytes that you use in the mash will help a bit with the diarrhea's dehydration effects. You can even mix a little of the yolk of a boiled egg into it to tempt him to eat.

For his respiratory symptoms, if you don't see them improve greatly within 3 days, then the medicine that you're using is the wrong one. I'd highly recommend picking up Tylan (injectable) and 3 - 3cc syringes (25 gauge needles or around there are fine) if this antibiotic doesn't work. Alternately you could try Sulmet (a liquid for the water) which not only treats a couple of respiratory illnesse but also E. coli infections.

This could be viral (possible) with the diarrhea being from the drainage of the sinuses into the digestive tract (likely) upsetting the good bacteria there. In that case, no antibiotic will work for the disease - but possibly for secondary bacteria infections of the sinuses and digestive tract.

So really it's pretty much guesswork unless you see one of a few symptoms that point out specific diseases.

For example, smell the chicken's drainage. It it's very rank smelling, then it's likely Coryza (treatable with Sulmet). If there is bubbling in the eye, then it could be a mycoplasma like M Gallisepticum or M synoviae (somewhat treatable with Tylan). If there is excess drooling from the mouth and neck twisting, these are symptoms that point towards Pasteurella (treatable with Sulmet)

In the mean time til more clarification (by the bird's symptoms) occurs, do keep those eyes clean daily with warm water. You could use VetRx if you have it to swab the nares, under the eyes, and the hard-palate cleft of the bird to help keep air moving in the sinuses and possibly reduce inflammation and mucus. A bird that can't breathe won't heal.

Basically, I would do this:

make sure you're using the chlortetracycline correctly (dosage, days, etc)
Use probiotics daily - very important
Make a daily wet mash of probiotics, vitamins/electrolytes, crumbles.
Possibly use VetRx to faciliate healing (any variety - say rabbit, etc, will do)
Prepare to get a different antibiotic.

INcidentally, please do isolate that rooster from the other. Do his chores last in the day, the healthy rooster's first. Use an antibacterial hand gel on your hands after handling the ill rooster in the barn so you don't contaminate your doorknobs, etc, when going into the house - and then wash your hands thoroughly.

Disinfect all the waterers, feeders, as they will have droplets of his gunk on them.

Please email me, pm, or ask here if you have any questions about the above.

 

[Skip Ripple]

Oh, sorry. Yes, we typically feed our boys with a corn mash and occasionally an all-purpose pellet mix from the feed store. We sometimes feed them fresh veggies (zucchini, lettuce, carrot peelings, tomato slices etc.) Sometimes my wife will throw out a handful of crackers, bread or corn tortilla chips (crumbled) and we have even scattered out cockatoo mix (sunflowers,corn, millet, etc.) There has been no significant change in diet and I should mention that of our two roosters, the sick one is the dominant rooster and over the last couple of days the healthy one has taken a more agressive position(eating first, crowing more often, even charging at me this afternoon). Up until Fri. afternoon , both roosters (Americanas sp?) have been extremely healthy and happy. They have free run of our yard and follow my wife, son and I around like pups. They never venture into the woods and this is a very sudden change. Two-piece (the healthy one) remains completely healthy btw. Again, my family and I are new to this (3mos.) as we had these roosters somewhat put upon us by a family member in aan emergency situation. We love them to death and want to help the poor guy out. (If someone will tell me how to add a picture to my post I'll gladly do so.) Sorry so long.....

 

[Skip Ripple]

I figured out the picture post btw....

This is Two-piece,the healthy one.

This is his brother, Colonel Sanders,the sick one.
The stuff around his eyes doesn't smell, and I am at a loss. Thank you for your suggestion. I hope this sheds a little light.

 

[Judy]

Those head lesions look like Avian Pox or Fowl Pox. His other symptoms might be a secondary infection. A quick Google will give plenty of info on it.

Threehorses gives excellent guidance; I would do as she said.

 

[Skip Ripple]

Thank you, I googled fowl pox earlier , and the discoloration you see is actually what i believe to be dried mucous..(it wipes off) the photos I saw of chickens infected with the pox were very different. I tried to wash off the area(and was thoroughly wing-beaten &scratched), but these guys don't like to be handled. Unfortunately I came into these guys after they were at least 4-5 mos. old. Their previous owner(my dad) simply fed them and let them roost in his abandoned tool shed, so I'd pretty much have to grab him after dark to do so. I should also mention that they just went in their coop, and he won't roost, just standing in a corner on the floor. P.s. I don't get paid 'til Thurs., and can't possibly afford any other supplements or treatments until then...even then, a vet is far out of our budget...I'll keep checking the posts 'til I can't keep my eyes open 2nite....thanks 3horses &ddawn...I'll get the probiotics & other stuff asap.

 

[Skip Ripple]

P.S.

This is where I tried to narrow down my rooster's symptoms before a vet tech reccomended this forum over the phone....it's a University of Florida website extension with a few tables and numerous descriptions of symptoms and treatments....were I more knowledgeable I believe it would have come in much handier but as you all know, I am still a new egg.


http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS044#


any help is greatly appreciated

 

[robin416]

He looks like he's been poking around in burnt charcoals. I've never seen anything like this. Not sure I'd have him on antibiotics without more info. If this turns out to be some type of fungus and not him poking his head where it doesn't belong the antibiotics could make it worse.

 

[Skip Ripple]

Yeah robin, the crusty stuff has definitely gotten dirty, but if you look at the feathers above his eye, you can kinda see where it goes from a dark brown to the normal color of his feathers....they're normally a whitish color there... the mucous was originally opaque/clear but he's been in a bare patch of my yard rooting for bugs and such where the soil is exceptionally dark... like I said, I tried to clean him up, but to no avail. He was having no part of it. It's dark now, and I just checked on him and actually had to put him up on his roost from the floor and he was very docile, like he always is at night.(his brother is rowdy 24/7-hates contact) I believe I'll go and attempt to clean his face up with a warm wet cloth and see what happens..still open to suggestions and attempts to diagnose from any and all posters. If I can I'll take a picture and re-post. Wish me luck.