Rescue Rooster- Potential problems/ treatment?

[commandrogyne]

My sister and I found this poor thing in the bushes at the post office today. We managed to catch him and brought him home to clean him up and see if we can do anything for him, but this is new to me and I want to make sure we give him the best chance at survival. His behavior seems pretty standard for a scared chicken (his vocal cords sure do work, as do his legs!), but he definitely looks like he's been on his own for at least a week, if not more. We have him set up in a quarantine cage (old dog crate in the garage) right now, and have sent out feelers to the local community on the off chance he's a pet that got out. He took being handled pretty well, better than a few in my flock who I raised, if I'm being honest, and he doesn't seem like a meat bird or an egg bird based on his breed (I suspect he's a silkie or has some silkie in him, but he's too much of a mess to say for sure). I am about 90% sure he has scaly leg mites, but he's too scared to handle at the moment, so treatment is going to have to wait a day or two. I suspect he has had some bad run ins with dogs, as he started freaking out when she saw mine (he's big but doesn't care about the birds, not a danger to them unless they attack him) so I should probably check him for injuries, but again, he's very scared so I think I need to wait a day or two. My biggest concern at the moment is his wings, his flight feathers seem to have been stripped to just the quills. I haven't seen anything like that before, would that be something he would do to herself if deprived of food? I know chickens will eat feathers as a source of protein (we've struggled with it before), but I've never seen a chicken do it to itself. Is there any illness that would do that to just his flight feathers? A predator?
We're definitely planning on bathing him thoroughly and giving him a dusting of DE to treat any mites or lice he may have, is there anything else we should do for him? I don't think there are any vets in our area that treat chickens, but I could check again if a vet's opinion is necessary.
Thanks for reading this essay lol, please let me know if any additional information would be helpful!

(edit: as CloverTheRabbit suspected, this is a rooster! I've updated the title and pronouns, but left the content the same for posterity. We are still planning to do what we can for him, and will still be looking for his potential owners, but I'm not super hopeful, he seems like he was probably abandoned hopefully he'll clean up nice and be able to join our flock after quarantine though!)

 

[nuthatched]

It's a silkie mix,very pretty. I can't tell it's sex but I'm glad you rescued it.
Get some permethrine based poultry dust to treat mites, d.e is ineffective and a respiratory irritant for you and your birds.

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Hello!

I’m so glad you were able to save him/her! S/he’s very pretty! Looks like potentially a silkie x frizzle cross? I’m really not sure, just guessing lol!

Silkies naturally have very broken, thin, almost “stripped shaft” looking flight feathers, and since it’s a silkie mix, I think it would be normal for this one too. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

Definitely check for injuries as soon as possible, but like you said, you might want to wait a little while to avoid over stressing him/her. You probably want to start the mite treatment as soon as possible as well.

 

[Prince and Pavo]

After looking at the pictures more closely, I think that’s a rooster… maybe that’s why he was abandoned

 

[commandrogyne]

After looking at the pictures more closely, I think that’s a rooster… maybe that’s why he was abandoned

It didn't even occur to me that it would be a rooster, but that's a good point! I didn't hear any crowing at all, just normal 'scared hen' noises, but I'll see if I can sex it when its a bit more calm. Good to know about the flight feathers, should we take any action? i don't want to stress the poor thing but if its better to trim or pluck the quills it'll be good to know sooner rather than later.

 

[commandrogyne]

It's a silkie mix,very pretty. I can't tell it's sex but I'm glad you rescued it.
Get some permethrine based poultry dust to treat mites, d.e is ineffective and a respiratory irritant for you and your birds.

Thanks for the tip! Will any permethrine based dust work, or should I look out for some specific brand names?

 

[nuthatched]

Thanks for the tip! Will any permethrine based dust work, or should I look out for some specific brand names?

Any targeted for poultry or livestock, I think there's only a few brands but I couldn't tell you what they ate.

 

[Prince and Pavo]

It didn't even occur to me that it would be a rooster, but that's a good point! I didn't hear any crowing at all, just normal 'scared hen' noises, but I'll see if I can sex it when its a bit more calm. Good to know about the flight feathers, should we take any action? i don't want to stress the poor thing but if its better to trim or pluck the quills it'll be good to know sooner rather than later.

Nope! The feathers will always be like that so trimming them will not provide any positive effects, but it will probably stress the chicken out more. I would just leave them

 

[commandrogyne]

Nope! The feathers will always be like that so trimming them will not provide any positive effects, but it will probably stress the chicken out more. I would just leave them

Good to know! Good call on the sex as well, someone in the household was woken up by crowing around 5 am today, looks like this bedraggled muppet is a rooster!

 

[commandrogyne]

Update in case anyone is at the edge of their seat over this lil guy: he seems to be doing well, all things considered! Very obviously traumatized and doesn't trust humans, but he's calmed down a lot and will barely even alarm when i slowly approach his cage to give him corn! I haven't even tried to touch him yet, so a bath and treatment for probably mites and such is still yet to come, but given that it's only been a few days, I'm really impressed at his progress. He seems to be pretty bright for a silkie, and i haven't seen any aggression from him whatsoever (he still doesn't like it when you stand facing him, which im given to understand that chickens will sometimes interpret as aggressive?) and I'm pretty sure I heard him clucking his little 'hey i found food!' rooster cluck earlier, which is sweet.