Possible vitamin deficient rooster not getting better.

[Carolyn2]

I have a rooster that is about a year old or more. He started showing signs of difficulty walking. I monitored him for several days wondering if he tore a muscle and might start improving. Instead, it got worse and now he can not walk or stand on his own. This all happened around the time that a neighbor gave us some chicken feed, which is why I think it could have been a vitamin deficiency. I started adding roosters booster to his feed daily for a week, then we had a coccidiosis outbreak in the flock and I had to stop the vitamin treatment. It has now been about two weeks that he has been receiving 3 ml of Rooster Booster Poultry Cell liquid daily, and scrambled eggs with 400 IU vitamin E capsule squeezed onto the eggs, plus good quality chicken feed. His poo is normal, he eats and drinks like normal. Comb color is bright red like always. I am not seeing any other issues besides not being able to walk. When I pick him up, he will kick his legs, but he just can’t hold himself up. He is a big boy. My questions are…should I be doing anything different to help? At what point do I call it quits?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Have you considered the possibility of Marek's?
You can still give vitamins while treating coccidiosis with amprolium, just no thiamine.

 

[Down Under]

The feed could be a coincidence, but someone was telling me the other day that she no longer feeds her flock with commercial feed because some of the feed manufacturers spray their feed with something (I am not sure what the 3 letters were that she told me) to stop rodents being attracted to it and that spray had caused several of her birds to go lame.

As ChickenCanoe said the other possibility for lameness is a disease, Marek's and Mycoplasma are common causes of lameness but it is best to get a test for these before ruling them out.

 

[Carolyn2]

Have you considered the possibility of Marek's?
You can still give vitamins while treating coccidiosis with amprolium, just no thiamine.

I did consider Marek’s because we did recently add new chicks to the flock. The rooster had been around them for a couple weeks, then we used the food the neighbor gave us which was a generic no name brand. It was a few days after we switched feed that his mobility started to decline, that’s why I suspected vitamin deficiency. I suppose it could be either since both things happened around the same time. The chicks were probably around 6-8 weeks old when he was first around them.

 

[Carolyn2]

If it is a vitamin deficiency, any idea how long the recovery process would be?

 

[Down Under]

I did consider Marek’s because we did recently add new chicks to the flock. The rooster had been around them for a couple weeks, then we used the food the neighbor gave us which was a generic no name brand. It was a few days after we switched feed that his mobility started to decline, that’s why I suspected vitamin deficiency. I suppose it could be either since both things happened around the same time. The chicks were probably around 6-8 weeks old when he was first around them.

With that timeline it would have to be a weak strain of Marek's or he would have to have already been vitamin deficient when you changed feed for it to be vitamin deficiency. Was your old feed fortified with vitamins?

 

[Carolyn2]

With that timeline it would have to be a weak strain of Marek's or he would have to have already been vitamin deficient when you changed feed for it to be vitamin deficiency. Was your old feed fortified with vitamins?

The feed prior was Purina layer pellets. Now that I think about it, before that it was generic stuff that we got at donation sites. We were impacted by hurricane Helene last year and had to rely heavily on donation feed that probably wasn’t the greatest for several months. If it is a vitamin deficiency, then that feed probably started the issue.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If a feed is made at a local feed mill, it could be of good quality, but without a guaranteed analysis, there is no way to assure the nutritional value.
Much more important is the age of the feed. That means the mill date on either the seal, the guaranteed analysis tag or some other place where the date can be printed as it is bagged.
Mineral content shouldn't change but added fats, essential amino acids and some vitamins, especially fat-soluble ones can diminish over time, some quickly.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

The feed could be a coincidence, but someone was telling me the other day that she no longer feeds her flock with commercial feed because some of the feed manufacturers spray their feed with something (I am not sure what the 3 letters were that she told me) to stop rodents being attracted to it and that spray had caused several of her birds to go lame.

I would be very surprised of this. I've got mice and other rodents who eat my commercial feed. I've rat proofed it as much as I can but they still occasionally eat it. They also would not spray commercial chicken feed with something that has the potential for adverse effects in chickens, the primary consumer of said feed. I think it is just a coincidence.