Rooster dropping head and constantly swallowing

[SkyAJK]

@Eggcessive
@Wyorp Rock

Please help my rooster
My 6/7 year old rooster is dropping head down as if he is picking up food to eat, except his head stayed dropped. He is constantly swallowing.

In the last 3 days, I saw him dropping his head while he was roosting.

This morning he looked no energy, slapped his wings a few times without the usual vigour.

His comb is red and same as usual.
His beak slightly open and it is seems that he is breathing through it.

His crop was like a little balloon of gas, the gas busted out from his mouth when I massaged it. There are some mucus sticky foam inside his mouth.

I feed him some egg, he loved it,but a few hours later some of the egg was hanging on his wattle.

Checked inside his mouth there isn't anything stand out.
Checked for the usual lice/mites. Non found
Wormed the flock about a week ago.

He poops a little this morning and his poop is the same solid as per usual. Good poop.

I treated him with epsom salt drink this morning. Now the gas in his crop is almost gone, & now crop feels no solid in it. No more mucus foam in his mouth.

Now being 10 hours after all that, he is not bother doing anything else, just laying flat on the ground, beak touches the ground.

With the gas in his crop almost gone, I assumed he would feel much better, but he is not.

When I pick him up, he is ok standing still, but then his head is slowly lower until his beak finally touches the ground. After that no further movement.

He did make a few crows, but his crow sounded broken/cracked sound, not his usual long loud crow .

He looks at me whenever I come to check on him, his head stays still on the ground, but his eye turns as if he is saying are you doing anything about this? I am trying very hard.

He ate some feed and his crop back with gas and mucus foam in his mouth again. I will only offer water tomorrow, no more food for 24 hours.

I had search in this forum for similar condition, but I had not find anything pointed me to the next step and what is his condition is.

He has lived here since he was a week old, I have not introduce new chickens, except for a few days old chick that was 6 weeks ago now, but it lives a separate area from the rest of the flock with mother hen.

I don't know what is wrong with him and I do not know what else to do for him. Please help and thank you.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you suspect that he has wry neck, or is his neck weak or limp? Do you have another rooster? Can you look inside his beak for any yellow to white material or cankers? Is his throat and airway clear? Does he have any bubbles or foam in either eye, mucus from his nostrils, or a swollen eyelid? Is he able to eat or drink? Have you seen any respiratory issues or fowl pox in your flock recently? I don’t know, but maybe his struggling with his neck and mucus are causing him to swallow air. If his neck is stuck down, and he can’t raise it, that may be wry neck, a neurological condition. It is seen sometimes with a head injury, vitamin E or thiamine deficiency, and in some viruses.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

My 6/7 year old rooster is dropping head down as if he is picking up food to eat, except his head stayed dropped. He is constantly swallowing.

His crop was like a little balloon of gas, the gas busted out from his mouth when I massaged it. There are some mucus sticky foam inside his mouth.

I treated him with epsom salt drink this morning. Now the gas in his crop is almost gone, & now crop feels no solid in it. No more mucus foam in his mouth.

Now being 10 hours after all that, he is not bother doing anything else, just laying flat on the ground, beak touches the ground.

He ate some feed and his crop back with gas and mucus foam in his mouth again. I will only offer water tomorrow, no more food for 24 hours.

Does he have any lesions inside the beak?

Could he have eaten something toxic, moldy, rotten or dead?

If he did improve a little with the Epsom Salts flush, I'd try that again. Work on hydration afterward, he does needs fluids.

Hard to know what's happening with him, the hanging of the head can be a number of things. The vitamin therapy as suggested is a good idea.

Flushes:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...at-vent-gleet-naturally.1609569/post-28003224

 

[SkyAJK]

Do you suspect that he has wry neck, or is his neck weak or limp? Do you have another rooster? Can you look inside his beak for any yellow to white material or cankers? Is his throat and airway clear? Does he have any bubbles or foam in either eye, mucus from his nostrils, or a swollen eyelid? Is he able to eat or drink? Have you seen any respiratory issues or fowl pox in your flock recently? I don’t know, but maybe his struggling with his neck and mucus are causing him to swallow air. If his neck is stuck down, and he can’t raise it, that may be wry neck, a neurological condition. It is seen sometimes with a head injury, vitamin E or thiamine deficiency, and in some viruses.

He is the only rooster in my flock.

Wry neck
I don't think he has wry neck because when his head slowly dropped down, he picks it up and hold it up for a little while, then it is slowly drop down again.

Beak
Inside beak there is nothing growing in it. Colour pale white.

Tongue is looking bigger than usual. Might be it is blocking the airway. It is not easy to see his airway with this slightly bigger tongue.

Eyes no discharge, dry normal.

Eye swollen
1 eye slightly swollen around it - the eyelid and the edge around the eyeball. The upper eyelid has yellow cheesy stuff every few days build up. I cleaned it every few days. It has been like this for some months now.

Could this be a symptoms of something serious and his head drop now is just an escalation of that illness?

Nose no discharge, dry normal.

He does seem to have problem swallowing, each time he eats, he stops and try to swallow it, then pick up food again.

He still eat and drink, but not as much as he used to.

Illnesses:
No recent illness from the flock.

Ears infection, he had this many weeks ago, cheesy stuff was growing out of his ears and smelly. I treated him with Hydrogen Peroxide as I read on the posts in this forum. His ears infection cleared after a few days. I checked he does not have ears infection now.

 

[SkyAJK]

Does he have any lesions inside the beak?

Could he have eaten something toxic, moldy, rotten or dead?

If he did improve a little with the Epsom Salts flush, I'd try that again. Work on hydration afterward, he does needs fluids.

Hard to know what's happening with him, the hanging of the head can be a number of things. The vitamin therapy as suggested is a good idea.

Flushes:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...at-vent-gleet-naturally.1609569/post-28003224

No lesions inside his beak

We have been having lots of rain and so there are some tiny wild mushrooms pops up everywhere in the garden. I mow the lawn often to rid of these and pick them out as I see them.

We also have the bush/wild turkey come into our yard and poops. I inspect my yard each morning and remove these as I found them.

I don't know if he has eaten any of these stuff. My other chickens are good.

I will give him the epsom salt drink as per link you included. I will give him the better flush without a tube as I don't have it and not know how to do it that way so I will have to do it the hard way. 1ml each time and let him take some himself until it finishes the half cup as required.

After the epsom salt drink I will leave out water mix with vitamins for him to drink freely all day.

He has been eating laying feed with the hens all these years, I don't know if this has any impact?

 

[SkyAJK]

Thank you so much both for your help.
I will give him epsom salt drink, vitamins drink, but no food for 24 hours.

 

[SkyAJK]

I managed to gave him 105ml instead of 125ml half a cup epsom salt drink. I used a 5ml syringe. He had liquid poop a bit after. He was still pooping solid last night.

This morning I will get a feeding tube. I am giving him vitamin drink and scramble egg.

His head still drop down, and his back now a bit round, he is hunching over.

 

[Eggcessive]

Look at his tongue, just in case there is a hair or string wrapped around it. That can sometimes happen, and when it is swallowed, it can cause the tongue to swell. That may not be the issue. Any pictures of the swollen eye and gunk can help. I would use either Terramycin eye or plain Neosporin ointment in the eye 2-3 times a day after cleaning it with saline or eye wash. The eye and ear sound like he has a respiratory disease which causes sinus infection. Antibiotics such as Tylosin or Denagard/TiaGard can be used to treat it. Here is where to find Tylosin:
https://jedds.com/products/tylosin-...QMvgc5eHUIGWWDxGKffaZMwpwIUzUWHKbPqxnNOXGh93X
Dosage is 1 tsp per gallon of water for 5 days.

 

[SkyAJK]

Here are photos of his left and right eyes. They look swollen.
Also attached video clip of his posture and head drop.

 

[SkyAJK]

I am sad to say that I just found some small pieces of yellowy looking stuff inside his mouth. I found a post that Eggcessive had included a link - he has oral cranker.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-this-fowl-pox.1630683/

He is worse now, he has stopped eating and drinking, sticky mucus inside mouth egg white like texture, stand still in one position with head dropped and eyes closed.

What do I do now?
Stop all current treatment - epsom salt drink, vitamin drink, and Tylosin powder drink?