Roo is sick, we have no clue?????

[miketravis]

1) Not sure what type of roo, all black with a green hue in sunlight, about 1 year old.
2) Looks like it is having a seizure and cannot control his legs/balance, then pops up and acts like he is fine. A few minutes will go by and then back to this same pattern over and over again. Also scratches at his neck and head.
3)No visible signs of trauma of any kind.
4) Nothing has happened that we are aware of, he is the only rooster and is very dominent to all the hens
5) Unsure of his diet for the day, normal diet consist of chicken crumble and fruit scraps, only different thing today were some peanut shells the kids threw in the pen.
6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Unsure have not isolated him yet
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? None, we just noticed.
8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? Need any advise on what to do, will not take him to the vet.
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. none
10) A-frame coup with straw bedding.




Please help, nothing we have searched for is anything like this and we do not know what to do.

 

[Jenski]

For something like this where you're not sure exactly what is going on - - and you can't identify exactly what he is consuming or doing during the day (common for free rangers) -- I would try isolating him in a cage or dog crate indoors for 24 hours to observe and see what's going on. I know this can be inconvenient, especially with a nice free-ranging roo with a job to do, but I can tell you from unfortunate experience that isolating quickly can be extremely helpful at figuring out what's happening.

Some [vague] possibilities, just guesses given what little we know -- possibly botulism, head trauma, Marek's disease, other toxin (insecticide?) . . . really just guesses, but that might give you something to Google while he settles into his kennel.

Give plenty of fresh water, nice fresh crumble or pellets, [no cedar shavings] and maybe a warm mash of the chicken feed if he is grumpy and doesn't want to eat. No treats until you get a bead on what's going on.

Please keep us posted on his progress; perhaps others will have more to add. Good luck!

 

[dlhunicorn]

only different thing today were some peanut shells

peanuts are notorius for mycotoxin... the shells has no nutritional value so tell your children not to do this anymore.
I would keep a good eye on him and add some wheatgermoil through his (non-layer!) feed. You should also be careful with the peels of fruit ... unless you are buying organic remember that fruit and veggies are treated with chemicals to preserve them and outside of the fact that some peels are not good for birds, this is also something that many forget > many of these chemicals can not even be washed off so just avoid giving peels is my rule of thumb.​

 

[miketravis]

We isolated him last night and observed him for a few hours prior to going to bed.

His behavior was very strange, he was fine until our dog ran up to his crate, it was almost like he was banging his head against the wall any time any other animal came near. After we removed the animals from the porch where he was he stopped, started to make some normal noises and nothing happened for a good hour after that. We went to bed and this morning he seemed fine. We put him back in the pen to observe him and aside from what appears to be poor balance he seems fine. Still no normal pattern and he seems completely disinterested in the hens.

Good point about the fruits and veggie peels, I work in a grocery store and never stopped to think about that. The only thing we have done different, but we never thought anything of it until this morning is we just got this old faded concrete statue of a rooster that we had placed next to the pen. Lame I know but we like it

All this behavior started after we put this statue there, and we never thought anything of it as we can tell it is a rooster but it is definitely not that life like and a solid faded white/gray color. Can this be intimidating our roo and causing him to do this to himself???? I have heard of other animals trying to kill themselves by banging their heads against things but not a rooster. I thought a rooster would maybe get a bit aggressive around it but not this? I guess I could only hope it was this causing it as it was real easy to move the concrete roo.

Any more ideas would be great, thank you for the great feedback so far.

 

[miketravis]

None of our other chickens are showing any signs of distress whatsoever, just thought that might be important.

 

[miketravis]

If anybody is interested, here is a link to a youtube video of his behavior today.

 

[NotTheMomma]

That looks like a neurological problem!! Possibly Merecks! (sp?) I would seperate him from all my other chicks. That's not normal rooster or chicken behavior at all! He literally has no control over how he is acting, and is turning almost cartwheels. Worse than wry neck.

Bumping and hoping someone see this with more knowledge than I have!!!

 

[miketravis]

bump

any help please...................

 

[Jenski]

Holy smokes. Seeing your poor roo like this must be pretty upsetting. Sorry this happened.


IF you can rule out some sort of poisoning from the peanut shells as per dlhunicorn - -


My (non-vet) guess would be Marek's, and unfortunately there is no cure I am aware of. There are some experimental treatments being tried, but nothing fabulous enough to mass produce yet.

Here is a little [heavy] background reading:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/203602.htm

And I like this page out of Tasmania because it boils things down in layman's terms:

http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/CART-6PTVYH?open

There is also a page I cannot list for "competition rule" reasons on this forum, but if you Google photos of Marek's you can easily find it.

And finally, an article by very experienced poultry fancier K.J. Theodore:

http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page9.htm

and from that article, I notice this passage:

"Mareks usually hits between 5 and 25 weeks of age, but can appear even later if the bird had 'latent' MD and is substantially stressed. However, if the bird is a few years old, I would suspect a similar disease called Lymphoid Leukosis (which does pass to the egg). Both diseases will produce internal lesions (or tumors), detectable upon post mortem examination, but LL does not produce paralysis."

I list all this only to say the bird seems to present for Marek's, but if he is a year old it is also possible he has LL, which can also be a serious illness. (The rolling looks more like descriptions of Marek's to me.) What you choose to do now is up to you. If you have a vet nearby who sees birds, great. If not, you alone must decide if your bird is suffering or starving to death from his symptoms. That's the crummy part of keeping animals, and no one here who has had to make that decision will think the worst of you if you decide to humanely cull your feathered friend.

Hope that helps. As always I welcome comments, additions, corrections from other members. Please keep us posted on how the situation develops, and let us know if you need more help. Good luck.

 

[FisherMOM]

how sad..and he is so beautiful too.