This is confusing, so I'm reaching out to see what others might think. Phoenix, our 9 year old IB Peacock, has been sick for about five days now. Originally he was very lethargic, droopy wings, and would not eat anything, or drink and spent most of his time lying on the ground. I had just dewormed the flock with a broad spectrum dewormer, they finished it about a week ago. At first, I thought that maybe he has worms, and didn't get enough of the dewormer...we've had a lot of rain off and on over the summer. But he seems to be very slowly improving. I started the flock on ZyfendA in the water after they finished the dewormer, which is something we do as a standard practice, but I think it might be helping him. After three days of not eating or drinking anything, he began accepting food from my hand...chopped green grapes or cherries, scrambled eggs, he even begged for hard catfood last night, which is his favorite, though he wouldn't touch it when he first became ill. And he has been drinking the water with ZyfendA in it, although I haven't seen him drink a lot. He's not eating a lot either; just a couple of bites here and there. He still lies down a lot during the day, but He is also getting up every day now and going out for a walk, some sun, and a bit of foraging, which is an improvement from the first two days he was ill. His wings are less droopy and he looks brighter.And his head feather is not as droopy. BUT, he seems to be weaker in that he can't fly up to his higher roost. He was able to when he first got sick, but now he has been roosting lower. We have tried everything to try and catch him during the day, but he's good at side-stepping and I'm not going to chase him around a lot when he's sick. We have nets and multiple people but I think he can read my mind.... 
and he's a lot faster than we are. I suppose I could try to catch him in the middle of the night since he is roosting lower, but he is very alert, I have never seen him sleeping at all, especially since he's been roosting lower...so it wouldn't be easy, AND I'm not sure if the stress of being caught and confined would be good for him at this point. I'm thinking that it is possible that he's suffering from worm die-off toxin, and maybe that is why he seems to be slowly improving in a lot of ways, but I know that Blackhead has similar symptoms to what he has, and I can't figure out why his flight strength seems to be diminishing, unless maybe it's just because he's not eating as much as he should be. I haven't seen him eating any regular feed, he just eats goodies, as I said. Our other peacock, Sapphire, is with him a lot, and Sapphire seems fine, except that he has developed a slight limp. The limp seems to respond to baby aspirin, so I'm guessing it's a sprain or bruise. Our one peahen is broody right now, but when she gets off the nest, she seems ok too. The rest of the flock (chickens) seem fine. We deworm quarterly, alternating broad spectrum dewormers. We've had both of our peacocks for 9 years, our peahen for five years, and to my knowledge they've never had a problem with worms before. I'm wondering if I should just continue with the ZyfendA and maybe some vitamins, or, if I can give him enough in a treat, should I try more dewormer eventually? I haven't seen any sulfur-yellow droppings. I don't THINK it's Blackhead...but I'm just not sure. Thoughts?
and he's a lot faster than we are. I suppose I could try to catch him in the middle of the night since he is roosting lower, but he is very alert, I have never seen him sleeping at all, especially since he's been roosting lower...so it wouldn't be easy, AND I'm not sure if the stress of being caught and confined would be good for him at this point. I'm thinking that it is possible that he's suffering from worm die-off toxin, and maybe that is why he seems to be slowly improving in a lot of ways, but I know that Blackhead has similar symptoms to what he has, and I can't figure out why his flight strength seems to be diminishing, unless maybe it's just because he's not eating as much as he should be. I haven't seen him eating any regular feed, he just eats goodies, as I said. Our other peacock, Sapphire, is with him a lot, and Sapphire seems fine, except that he has developed a slight limp. The limp seems to respond to baby aspirin, so I'm guessing it's a sprain or bruise. Our one peahen is broody right now, but when she gets off the nest, she seems ok too. The rest of the flock (chickens) seem fine. We deworm quarterly, alternating broad spectrum dewormers. We've had both of our peacocks for 9 years, our peahen for five years, and to my knowledge they've never had a problem with worms before. I'm wondering if I should just continue with the ZyfendA and maybe some vitamins, or, if I can give him enough in a treat, should I try more dewormer eventually? I haven't seen any sulfur-yellow droppings. I don't THINK it's Blackhead...but I'm just not sure. Thoughts?
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He is VERY underweight and weak. Hopefully he will poop for me but whether he does or doesn't, at this point it's an emergency, and we're off to the vet's tomorrow.
. We were disappointed with the vet. He's an exotics vet but he had no idea what Blackhead was, even when I called it Histomonosis. Phoenix was very dehydrated, and he had extreme weight loss, so he had obviously been ill for a couple of weeks, anyway. His crop was empty; not compacted. I'm pretty sure he was fine during breeding season, if I had to judge by the amount of noise he made then, and he seemed to be eating fine back then, too, although we know how birds can conceal symptoms of illness. He dropped his train a little early..about two to three weeks ago; and that's when we noticed that he was not coming up to the house to beg for treats as he liked to do.He died while the vet was trying to give him fluids, but I think the vet should have let ME hold him; it would have reduced the stress...I'm just so upset and furious. The vet did everything he should have done; fluids, antibiotics, etc...it's just the way he did it. he acted very impatient and assy, and I think that contributed to the stress of the bird. I had the fecal done anyway, so we'll see what it shows. He pooped on the vet's floor..and the poop looked pretty normal...light yellowish, white, some dark. Not sulfur yellow. Diarrhea. So, considering that it looked pretty normal as far as I could tell...maybe it wasn't BH? Is there anything to be done preventatively to help the other peas NOT contract BH? (besides deworming?)
