Well, he is about gone now. Just laying there with water running out of his mouth. But very peaceful. Shouldnt be long now. I just don't know what it was and I don't want anyone else to get sick. He was using his legs, and no signs of being paralyzed. He is just very weak and no meat on him. I am going to treat everyone for cocci. Other than that I don't know.
I have been reading up on merek's and he does not seem to have any of the symptoms of that. No paralyzation at all. Just very weak and no muscle. He has literally wasted away and I did not notice. I feel terrible. I looked at his eyes and they do not look funny or anything. He never really had trouble breathing either. Just slowly drifting away. Thanks so much for all the help. I am cleaning out coops and runs this afternoon and replacing all the bedding. I am cleaning all water and food containers too. My Dh is going by and getting some wormer, i am wondering if I can worm and treat for cocci at the same time though?
his crop felt normal. It was empty and then when he would eat it would feel normal. I asked at the feed store and they told me to use wazine? to worm with. There are no signs of blood in poop or anything like that. Maybe he just go ahold of something? Or maybe he was wasting away due to worms? That would better explain him eating but losing weight right?
I just lost my splash silkie roo in pretty much the same manner.
(I also lost two 3 mo. old BB Red pullets; one w/ similar symptoms, one w/ only sign being fluffed in afternoon, dead that evening). The roo got very, VERY sick almost to the point of death. I brought him in, gave him the PVS vitamins, yogurt, scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, etc. His appetite was good; he began getting back a little strength, but didn't start putting on any weight. His legs weren't paralyzed; he could move them when I was bathing him to remove droppings that would stick in his fluff-behind feathers, but he couldn't stand or walk. I kept rolled up bath towels on either side of him and put him in a round cushioned cat bed so he could be upright and not lying down. He seemed to be recovering, but when I got up Monday morning, he had died during the night. I still don't know if it was Marek's or something else b/c when I gave him the first bath, I DID find tiny mites on him. I treated him immediately and treated everyone else except the new bantam OEGB bb red babies who are too tiny (IMO) to tolerate that, but I did treat the adults, the coop and will be redoing the coop in the next few days. I'm really sorry for your loss.
ETA when the roo first got sick, he started stumbling. I checked his feet, thinking it was that. I trimmed the topknot thinking he couldn't see (and b/c one ornery bantam frizzle cochin kept wanting to beat up on the silkie). Later that day the wind was blowing quite stiffly and I noticed the silkie was having trouble standing up in the wind. That's when I brought him inside & began the intensive care regimen.
Marek's Disease is sometimes called "wasting disease" because often times they just waste away without any other symptoms. I've had birds die that way, and the necropsy results confirmed MD was the culprit. But the fluid from the beak is kinda odd... how was he breathing?
Wazine 17 is a popular wormer..but it does only treat adult round worms, which are common to chickens.
it's a one day treatment in the drinking water..remove all other sources of water.
then retreat in 10-14 days.
might be best to go ahead and worm the others and see how they do..
then keep watch on the droppings.
I wouldn't suggest giving the silkie wormer at this stage.
I'm sorry.
Well, after all of this, I think I have found the culprit. LICE! They are all over him. I thought I would dust him to see what happened and they went everywhere. He is a silkie and has dark skin so it was harder to see them but once they were running off of him into the white tub I have him laying in, I could see them. They are rust colored so I assume they are full of his blood. Stupid blood suckers! I got some vit/elec and i am giving it to him via a syringe but I think it is too late for him. But at least I know. And everything will get cleaned out again and sprayed again. Bless his heart he has held in there with me all day but I just don't think he can pull through. I did not realize lice/mites could be so destructive. But obviously they are. Any suggestions for treatment of the rest of the flock would be great. I can't get DE here, so I will have to use Seven dust in the bedding. Thanks so much for all the info..
Protein and iron might pick him up. Feed him raw hamburger meat. This happened to a friend of mine recently. We got the lice under control, got her improving a bit, but the damage was done and she passed a weak later. If you can get some fast enough, Rooster Booster makes an excellent product called "Poultry Cell," if anything would pull him through I'm sure that would. Lots of fluids and iron and protein. He's probably anemic.
