Silkie rooster leans and struggles to balance over a week. Getting weaker. What could be the cause/solution?

[ChetManly]

One of my silkie roosters, 2 years old, seems to be getting weaker after not really walking for a week. At first he looked to be hobbling outside. We brought him in and found he is leaning heavily to one side and not moving even to pick up food. We think that is because he doesn’t want to lose balance. We brought him in and kept him alone so he can recover without being chased by others (hes bottom of pecking order, but a lovely chap!). But he hasn’t recovered, he’s about the same or maybe a little worse. He is having watery poos since a couple of days after we took him inside. I don’t know if this is from stress or because the area where he was is too damp, so I’ve taken him to a dryer room to see if this helps. He doesn’t make any sounds at all, he only flaps his wings at times to keep from losing balance (he seems to always nearly fall backwards and flaps to stay forward). He hobbles around a tiny bit but only eats food brought directly in front of his face. Here in UK vets are diagnosing nearly everything as Bird flu, and culling entire flocks regardless of misdiagnosis and what the owners say. An anonymous call we made advised they think it best to do a post-mortem autopsy! I won’t bring him in knowing everyone else could be a risk. The vets here are not bird specialists, and prior chickens, such as a bird who they suspected Mareks and insisted we cull despite us clearly telling them we saw her fall and maybe pull something is now 2 years on from her injury and still healthy but just not walking, and still with the flock. and more recently a little chick that “died” of cold and separation that I brought back myself, no thanks to vet, now a healthy rooster (unfortunately another rooster). Another vet saved our two little hens bitten in several places by foxes, but he only does night emergencies and that would be another 500 id rather not go into unless absolutely necessary. I know it can’t be bird flu, they are fully covered, all other chickens are fine and it’s been a week that he’s like this with little change. But with most muscle injuries in chickens healing quickly, what else could it could be that he isn’t improving yet? Is it possibly still physical? Or something else? Something I could check that gives us more information? We are feeding him an entire scrambled with water egg daily and his usual seeds. Before coming in he was free roaming with access to seeds, grass and water. His vent is squeaky clean, no sign of body trauma that we can see, and we can’t really feel anything wrong with the legs but we don’t know much what to look for. No bedding so far, we put him on puppy liners, but today we are thinking of moving him to a box to force him to sit. He has few lice on him - not many on a really good inspection. He is missing a few tail feathers from fighting the other roosters. Our chickens are pets, we just want them healthy without putting the others at risk.

 

[Debbie292d]

I was going to suggest a regiment of Poultry Cell and probiotics until I saw the part about the lice. I'd still do the vitamins, but the lice could be your culprit as they can cause anemia and other problems if not eliminated. I bet if you get him totally mite and lice free, that will help immensely. I've had a dizzy silkie on occasion and just treat them all with Nutra Drench for a couple of days and that seems to help. Mine were hens molting that kept sitting down in the yard because they had a hard time walking a straight line.

 

[ChetManly]

I was going to suggest a regiment of Poultry Cell and probiotics until I saw the part about the lice. I'd still do the vitamins, but the lice could be your culprit as they can cause anemia and other problems if not eliminated. I bet if you get him totally mite and lice free, that will help immensely. I've had a dizzy silkie on occasion and just treat them all with Nutra Drench for a couple of days and that seems to help. Mine were hens molting that kept sitting down in the yard because they had a hard time walking a straight line.

I appreciate the fast response! I'll endeavour to combat these little buggers.

What would be the best course of action to remove them not just from him but potentially the coops too?

 

[Debbie292d]

What we do to prevent lice and mites in the coop in the first place is religiously sprinkle food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) about twice a month throughout the coop, nests, and dust baths.

I've never had a chicken get them, but if I did, I'd reach out to something stronger as DE is more a prevention. I hear a lot of folks use Ivermectin that's for sheep, but there's a dosage for chickens online, I'm sure. There's also a very expensive product you can buy on eBay, Elector PSP, which makes a spray. Otherwise, there are products with permectrin I've heard are good too.

 

[ChetManly]

What we do to prevent lice and mites in the coop in the first place is religiously sprinkle food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) about twice a month throughout the coop, nests, and dust baths.

I've never had a chicken get them, but if I did, I'd reach out to something stronger as DE is more a prevention. I hear a lot of folks use Ivermectin that's for sheep, but there's a dosage for chickens online, I'm sure. There's also a very expensive product you can buy on eBay, Elector PSP, which makes a spray. Otherwise, there are products with permectrin I've heard are good too.

Yep ok. Brought some in - we use an awful lot of DE already everywhere it makes sense to.

We recently got 2 new hens from a farm - maybe they brought some with them. Got some of that Ivermectin arriving tomorrow.

See how the little fella gets on after that.

 

[Oob Child]

I have no idea. Hope your rooster is ok!

 

[Eggcessive]

I would try caging him with the flock, in a wire dog crate with food and water where he can still be a part of the flock. The balance issues could be from an illness or head injury, hard to know. Make sure that he is drinking well, and some b complex or chicken vitamins may help. Feeding some moistened chicken feed and scrambled egg or a little tuna.

 

[ChetManly]

I would try caging him with the flock, in a wire dog crate with food and water where he can still be a part of the flock. The balance issues could be from an illness or head injury, hard to know. Make sure that he is drinking well, and some b complex or chicken vitamins may help. Feeding some moistened chicken feed and scrambled egg or a little tuna.

We have him in a cage with his gang - although he doesnt seem to eat or drink much. We're having to do that manually mostly to make sure he is getting enough.

We've applied the ivermectin which only arrived today. I checked through his feathers again - really doesn't seem very many of these buggers and I would be surprised if this few in number would cause him such issues.

 

[ChetManly]

I have no idea. Hope your rooster is ok!

So do I! He is a great little guy, I was trying to move his mother to prevent her laying eggs outside in the wild, and she popped out his egg on me!