noob with a sick rooster....pt. 2...*update* we lost him.

[Skip Ripple]

O.k., here's the updtae: Colonel completely bounced back from his resp. infection ( https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=220700) and yesterday when I was about to start his probiotics, he took a sudden turn for the worse...lying on the ground, unresponsive,wouldn't drink or eat, skin and bones, nearly dead! I got really freaked out and started checking him from beak to vent and found egg clusters at the bases of many of his feathers. After an hour or so of researching this site and a dozen or so others , I figured out he had poultry lice. Infested in fact, and by the time I started to administer treatment, he was as limp as a wet dishrag and barely breathing. I immediately washed him with dawn dish detergent in a warm bath, rinsed him in a mild bleach solution (about a capful for every 2 gallons), towelled him off and dried him with our hair dryer(on low). He started to come to a little, but throughout his bath I was nearly certain we had lost him. His diarrhea was pretty severe, so we gave him unflavored pedialyte with a baby medicine syringe and did the same with a mixture of boiled egg and a splash of milk that we liquefied in the blender. He started to get his strength back (enough to barely stand) and then I administered an over the counter pyrethrin bird lice&mite spray from petsmart, and today I am going to dust the coop with sevin dust as soon as I clean it again. I should also mention that on the advice of the bird "expert" @ the pet store i gave his brother, Two-piece, a good spritzing as well, even though he seems unaffected. This was done as a preventative measure. I am also gonna dust the poor guys tonight, and the method I saw online was to put them in a garbage bag with sevin, head out of the bag of course, and to shake the bag around to apply a liberal dusting. Shake'n'bake style. I am also going to incorporate the yogurt probiotic 3horses mentioned in the previous thread to treat the diarrhea as well. I feel pretty good about this so far, according to all I've read here and elsewhere, but I'd like the opinions and advice of more established members and owners to ensure I don't miss anything or endanger the fellas in any way. Thanks in advance for your input and patience with this extremely long post...
Thank you,
Skip, his worried wife & feathered family members




P.S. Colonel is standing on his own now and walking very little, but has some fight in him when we give him doses of pedialyte...I think he's on his way back...fingers crossed

 

[fordmommy]

Wow! I hope he makes it. And threehorses is awesome help! Helped my Chicken get better!

 

[purpletree23]

Treat for mites and lice and clean out the coop and spray the inside with a white wash made out of Sevin dust or you can use Sevin liquid that you also mix with water. Clean out all of the bedding and spray down the inside. Open all the windows and doors to let dry well. Even spray the nest boxes. After a few hours have gone sprinkle the floor with Sevin dust and then put down at least 5 inches of new bedding.

Treat your whole flock for mice and lice. Buy a mite and lice killing shampoo. Usually have it for dogs. Your infested rooster will have to be bathed again (DO NOT USE BLEACH) because any eggs on him will have hatched in 7 days I think.

Get your chickens some some poultry vitamins and make sure they have good food and the proper treats. Up their nutrition. Chopped greens, cottage cheese, scrambled egg and yogurt. Not too much on any one treat but you want to build them back up again.

 

[Skip Ripple]

Update: I just dusted the coop, I'm gonna do the whitewash thing sunday when I can get some more sevin... I also mixed pedialyte and water for him to drink on his own, gave him a few doses of pedialyte, and I mixed yogurt, protein mash, boiled egg, vit. supplement and a dash of pedialyte for a damp mash and he nibbled at that for a couple of minutes....I guess this is a good sign, but he just looks pitiful and he's so lethargic that I can't help but think I'm not out of the woods yet....
Thanks for the prompt responses, I'll be back later, I've gotta run a coupla errands....
Skip & family




P.S. He was covered from tail to belly w/runny poop this a.m. so I gave him a quick bathe & dry...a ton of dead lice came off of him, but the egg clusters are still there....Am I gonna just have to wait & treat them again after the incubation cycle (7-10 days), or is there a specific treatment for targeting the eggs themselves? I didn't see anything on the spray about it killing eggs, and I know the sevin doesn"t.


Oh, and about the bleach, I had read on a coupla posts about people doing that, and the pet store bird
'expert" reccomended it as well, Hope I didn't hurt the poor fella...he's bad off enough as it is..

 

[Skip Ripple]

Please help....I can by no means afford a fecal from a vet and everyone I've called is saying that so far I've done the right stuff, but here's what my rooster's poop looks like....

Not sure what's going on....his appetite isn't improving much, we've got him separated, and he's still really lethargic, but I seem to have killed all of the lice so far (at least 'til the eggs hatch, then I'll spray & dust him again...5 more days I figure). He's moving around more and holding his head up, but his tail is still down and the diarrhea is still pretty bad. Also, when I opened the door to change the paper on the floor, his brother rushed in, feathers all blown out, and commenced to attacking the poor guy! I pulled him off of him, but the healthy one is now posted outside the door as if he's just waiting to pounce him the next time we open the door..
I'm stumped.


Skip & family



P.S. That dark stuff in the poop is grass, I checked. Otherwise... I'm clueless.

 

[robin416]

It probably would not hurt him to have some iron or some Red Cell. He's probably very depleted by everything that has gone on with him.

Be careful, the cures for the mites can be just as hard on him as the mites themselves. You could over do it and make him worse.

Pick up some baby food, stay away from chicken and turkey. They seem to like ham for some reason. Make him some oatmeal, put some sugar in it for energy.

Stay away from milk. From what I have been told they have a problem digesting the lactose in whole milk.

 

[Skip Ripple]

Thanks a million robin, will do. Btw, my wife has been pretty amazing throughout this ordeal, feeding bathing, etc., when I tell her we need to get baby food, she's gonna go to the store immediately to get it, I guarantee! Oh, and when I opened his mouth just now for a dose of pedialyte, I noticed it was kinda slimy and his tongue was kinda white in uneven splotches (thrush maybe?) Just thought I'd mention that.

 

[robin416]

Depending on when you gave him the milk it might be that. Try not to stress him too much more. Do support only on him for now, no more baths, no more bug treatment. Give him a chance to catch up physically.

 

[Skip Ripple]

Yeah, the milk was on Thurs. night, and literally like a half of a teaspoon to help liquefy the egg...I thought it would have been better than water and my wife wasn't back from the store with the pedialyte at the time. He now has a really nasty amount of poop-clumping on the feathers around his b-hole... I tried to take a picture, but he got pretty p.o.'ed when I lifted his tail.....

 

[robin416]

What I would do with one that depleted physically is to try and get some positive nutrition going first.

I do have to admit I laughed about the tail lifting. This I would leave alone for today too. The stress of being cleaned up may be too much.