I have a 5 month old silkie cockerel that seems to be having problems with balance. He is eating, drinking, pooping all normal. He has yet to crow and his brother has been crowing for a month now. If it wasn't for the streamers I would swear he was a she. His crest was extremely full and I gave him a hair cut so he could see better. He does shake his head often and he is either preening or itching. I will be giving him a dusting tonight for mites just in case thats what he's doing instead of preening. He has no symptoms of any sickness other than the bad balance. Does anybody have any ideas what could be the problem?
He does take a few steps before he starts rocking back and forth loosing his balance. He has been inside in my living room in a cage for a week now with no improvement. I started him on antibiotics in case he had something that might require it but it don't seem like thats the issue. I will be taking him to the vet soon if I can't figure out what the problem is if I can fix it myself.
Oh, None of the other silkie juveniles that are in the pen that he was in are having any of these issues. I did get a bad bag of wood shavings that had mites in it. I took care of that problem but was wondering if maybe mites could be in his ears or maybe has him anemic which might make him weak and seem like he's having balance problems. Just a thought of mine.
Another thing, when he "preens" it's his back and under his wings that he appears to be preening. I didn't see any lice or mites but the ones that came from that bag of wood shavings where very small. I had to treat all my birds and redo all the pens and I treated the pens also. Not what I usually have to do in the middle of the worst part of winter. That's usually something that seems to happen in the summer, here anyway.
