Rooster shaking his head. whats wrong?

[MVchickens]

My black australorp roo shakes his head in an S shape motion about every two min. he seems perfectly fine otherwise. any sugestions?

1) What type of bird , age and weight.- he is a black australorp, 5 months, 5-6 pounds
2) What is the behavior, exactly.- he is shaking his head in an S shape motion about every 2 min
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?- just about a week
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?- no
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.- no
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.- dont know of anything
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.- eating drinking like normal, free ranges during the day
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.- normal
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?- nothing
10 ) 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?
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use- 4x8 coop with pine shavings, lives with a bantam hen and dominique roo.

 

[spartacus_63]

Northern fowl mites, or similar. Check under the feathers, you should be able to see activity and possibly egg bundles. If it is NFM you will need to treat all your birds and the coop.

 

[MVchickens]

how do i treat?

 

[welasharon]

5% Seven dust or ivomec pour on is what I use.
sharon

 

[Desert Rooster]

could be gapeworm

 

[Carrie Lynn]

Mites in ears?
Is he "gaping"?

 

[spartacus_63]

Gapeworms normally cause a cough. Ivomec would kill both. Iivomec is not labeled for poultry and proper dosing is important. Also you would need to discard eggs for a period of time.

If it is mites, Seven works good, but it is more time consuming to apply. If you do find that it is mites, I would clean out the coop and dust with Seven even if you use ivomec as the treatment.

I also like Diatomaceous Earth which is an all natural non toxic product. Most on this site will tell you that DE is not effective as a miticide, I believe it is and have had success with it.

 

[al6517]

Head shaking is classic Ear Mites, treat with DE or seven dust, don't forget to treat all of the common area's also.

AL

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Head shaking in my flock = northern fowl mite load got too heavy and needs treating with Sevin dust in an old sock -I shake it all over the bird except face, then repeat in one week.

The head shaking disappears within 24 hours.

I NEVER see mites on the birds or in the coops. NEVER. I identified the mite because they were jumping on ME and biting me. Ugh.

 

[RedRoosterFarm]

Can you tell me Ivermec pour on...Are there several different types? I want to hit mine for mites too and want to make sure I get the right stuff. What is the dose and where to put it and how please?
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