Roo Falling/Limping & Pale Comb

[kaleighmarie1213]

Help me figure out what's up with my roo boy!

This is the second day in a row now that he has plopped out of the coop in the morning and takes encouragement to get up and move. His comb and wattles are turning pale and limp, and his feathers on his lower back area seem to be jumbled up.

Could this be from illness or injury? I've been watching him closely today and he seems awake and alert as usual. In the evenings the last 3 nights he has been found outside the coop and we pick him up and put him in bed. He is just walking around in the dark by the coop but won't go in.

He is 6mo old and I've raised him by hand from egg with his flock mates. I live in Idaho and it's been hot the last week but I've been filling their water 2x a day and adding nutridrench once a day to help boost them up but no one else is affected in any way so I'm thinking heat is not the reason.

He is very sweet and not at all aggressive. Tonight I carried him inside and made a make shift bed for him because my brooder tote (under the box) has 2wk old chicks in it so my usual area I put injured or sick birds is occupied. I'll figure out a better solution by morning but it's 1020pm here and I'm out of ideas at the moment.

I gave him food and water and he is so far just going to town on the crumble and fresh strawberry. Anything else I should do?

 

[Perris]

how much does he weigh? can you feel his keel bone? how prominent is it? what does his poop look like?

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I'm so sorry your handsome cockerel is feeling unwell. Have you checked him for lice and/or mites? This is best done well after dark and make sure you really spend a considerable amount of time checking because they're tiny and very easy to miss. Like asked before, do you have a picture of his poop? Is his crop emptying overnight?

 

[kaleighmarie1213]

So sorry I haven't had a chance to respond. So we named him Charlie (kids picked it) and he spent 3 nights inside the house getting constant access to water and some feed/fruit before bed. His crop was emptying and he was pooping like normal.

He perked up considerably after the couple nights of pampering and has returned to the coop for day abd night as of last night. We do still have to lift Charlie up and take him to bed as he again was just left out alone when we shut the door last night, but he was able to hop down from the coop porch/ramp this morning with no stumbling. He still droops his left wing and seems to move wonky compared to his flock.

I checked him thoroughly for mites in the evenings he was indoors and didn't find anything. I will get some updated photos in the morning. His comb is slightly pale in comparison to his sibling and it still is folded/flopped over not standing up right. Which I think is odd but not sure why that would be related to his wing drooping.