Rooster down

[15WildTurkey]

Good people. They run a great little family barn where my kiddo learns to ride. They took in a hen from my flock that was getting beat up.
Thanks so much for your help. I’ll run over there tomorrow. You really don’t think the DE is of any benefit? Even just as an additive to their dust bath? I’m always so conflicted. People sing it’s praises as a magic powder. I understand it’s physical properties, I know it has to remain dry.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I just now quite a few people that have tried to use it for mite/lice and/or worm treatment (dusting the bird and by adding it to feed, etc. ) and it did not *work* - they still needed to unfortunately use *chemicals/medications* to rid of the parasites.

As an additive to dust bathing areas, I don't see that it would hurt anything though

 

[15WildTurkey]

I don’t believe it does much internally as once it’s wet it can’t work. But as a desiccant for exoskeletal critters I think it helps. I think more of a keeps them in check measure then treating an infestation.
It turns out she dusted him with this powder this morning. So I’m not going to treat him with anything else for at least a week.

 

[15WildTurkey]

Here’s the pics she sent of him this morning. She said he immediately seemed brighter. That’s just a cat food snack to encourage him to eat. She said he was making vocal noises and he hasn’t done that for a while.
That’s a LOT of dead mites. Could that level of infestation cause him to be down? Anaemic from blood loss?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Poor little guy!

I'm glad she was able to go ahead and dust him!
Hard to know if the mites are the complete cause of him going down, but they weren't helping. A bad infestation of mites could make a bird anemic. The vitamins you are going to get/give will help. If possible (who knows if you can even get it or even afford it with this pandemic thing - prices have gone up here ) I would give him 1 Tablespoon beef liver a day for a few days. If not, give him egg. Cat food is o.k. too at this point anything to help entice him to eat/drink.

Once she tends to him, then I would treat the others too. Sometimes you may only have 1 bird that seems to have them - could be they weren't dust bathing or just not well for a while (they are so good at hiding illness).

Ya'll are doing what you can for him! I hope he makes a quick turn for the better! Please keep me posted.