flocktoflock
In the Brooder
- Apr 30, 2021
- 9
- 6
- 29
Hi all, this community and all of the threads and posts have been hugely helpful for us learning more about our backyard flock. Finally making a post because our rooster is in bad shape and in everything we've read, we haven't yet been able to help him.
He's a 3 or 4 year old black giant. This week he started showing trouble with balance (stumbling, walking backwards) and when we examined him we noticed his ears were very full of yellow gunk. We used a bit of hydrogen peroxide and a q-tip to try to gently try to start cleaning it up (didn't go into his ear). We did this for a day or so and had some maybe minor improvement but not a ton, so we tried some ear cleaning drops. Also seemed to make a minor difference to his balance, but I think his ears looked a little better.
However today he's taken a real hard turn for the worse and his balance seemed much worse. He can barely stand/walk and he's also now begun doing this thing with his mouth where he opens it every few seconds. (this is not our video, nor our rooster, but kind of looks like this:
) Up until today he's still been eating and drinking, but now seems to be avoid that.
When I picked him up, he still has a crazy amount of energy to avoid me picking him up though...
Gave him a little water with nutri drench by syringe to make sure he is getting liquid.
Also perhaps worth noting that we had to battle a bad mite infestation with him about two months ago, we were finally able to get him through that and he was back to being a healthy guy up until this point. Not sure if this is somehow related, but he doesn't have any mites currently.
With the balance problems and the ear gunk, it seemed like ear infection, but with the mouth thing I'm less sure and I'm not sure what the next best move here is.
Any suggestions or help greatly appreciated!
He's a 3 or 4 year old black giant. This week he started showing trouble with balance (stumbling, walking backwards) and when we examined him we noticed his ears were very full of yellow gunk. We used a bit of hydrogen peroxide and a q-tip to try to gently try to start cleaning it up (didn't go into his ear). We did this for a day or so and had some maybe minor improvement but not a ton, so we tried some ear cleaning drops. Also seemed to make a minor difference to his balance, but I think his ears looked a little better.
However today he's taken a real hard turn for the worse and his balance seemed much worse. He can barely stand/walk and he's also now begun doing this thing with his mouth where he opens it every few seconds. (this is not our video, nor our rooster, but kind of looks like this:
When I picked him up, he still has a crazy amount of energy to avoid me picking him up though...
Gave him a little water with nutri drench by syringe to make sure he is getting liquid.
Also perhaps worth noting that we had to battle a bad mite infestation with him about two months ago, we were finally able to get him through that and he was back to being a healthy guy up until this point. Not sure if this is somehow related, but he doesn't have any mites currently.
With the balance problems and the ear gunk, it seemed like ear infection, but with the mouth thing I'm less sure and I'm not sure what the next best move here is.
Any suggestions or help greatly appreciated!
