Very Strange symtoms~HELP!

[lmorto02]

I have a 3 yo bantam cochin rooster. Over the past month, he has not been himself. He went from being the alpha roo, to getting beat up & I had to remove the other roo to prevent him from being injured. He's a gentle roo. About this same time, he went from having a nice, red large comb, to a limp pink comb. He has always had feet that looked awful, full of what looks like barnacles on a boat! This never bothered him. He's always had a good appetite. Then, I noticed him getting a little "quieter". So, I picked him up last week & realized he is nothing but bones! Under all those feathers, he has NO meat! Now, his face has turned very pale and he sits in the corner at night instead of roosting. I have tried wormer, antibiotics, spraying his feet & legs with scaly mite spray, dusting him with mite dust, & adding electrolytes to the water. He is still eating & drinking, & comes out of the coop every morning. He's just much slower moving & you can tell he doesn't feel well. I really thought he would have died days ago, but he is still holding on. He does seem to pick a little at his feet. I've not seen any mites or worms. I just don't know what to do!! There's no respiratory issues. Does anyone have any ideas?? Could he just be getting old?? I thought they would live a lot longer though! Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Chicken_Pauper]

Three years old is not old... Scaley leg mites are very hard to get rid of... have the scales on his legs laid down, are they healed and smooth now? If not, continue to treat him, regularly for the Scaley Leg Mites until they are gone...

If you wormed him.... the flock.... with Valbazen at least twice... and you see no worms in the poop... they should all be worm free. Watch for Tape Worm Segments in the poo... (looks like white rice pieces... and if it's just pooped, right now.. they will move for a few seconds).

Environment... has that changed?? Bedding?? Did anything change in the month or so before he seemed to go downhill? You do not use Cedar at all, right?

You watch and check the poop ... while there are many normals... watch for the abnormal.. there is a poop chart.. search for "normal poop" here and you will find the UK link to the page.

I would guess worms... it depends on when you wormed him, with what, how long ago.. and if he has tapeworms it takes more and specific types of wormer... (Valbazen kills all types of worms.. must be given individually and orally... and repeated in ten days... withholding eggs for the duration of treating hens).... look for (search) worming with Valbazen info from dawg53 here on BYC.

Check his crop.. check and feel and massage his crop and see how it feels.. (that's the food sack on the chest area)....

Well... is anyone else sick, has any hen stopped laying... . everyone else's legs look o.k... also as far as Scaley Leg Mites go... I did not get rid of them until I bought Permethrin 10% spray (1.28oz per gallon of water), at the feed store and scrubbed and sprayed and aired out (keep the chickens out while doing all this).... the whole coop, roosts, all of it.. especially the roosts and all wood in the coop.
You can also use this spray directly on the chickens legs.. read the directions.. you can use it on dogs, cattle, chickens, coops, etc... Duvet is the brand I bought at the feed store... I had tried all the other "remedies" available multiple times.. only this worked for me, for Scaley Leg Mites.

Take care... best of luck.. if he is not well and showing it, you would want to isolate him into a hospital cage ... the others can attack and kill a weak chicken, they sense they are a threat to the flock.

 

[lmorto02]

Thanks! And to answer a few questions: wormed with Wazine~haven't seen anything unusual in the poop, although it's hard to tell. No other chicks are sick, & I have a total of 25. Felt his crop tonight after he had eaten a good bit of scratch corn~I could def feel the feed in it, but I gently massaged it & couldn't tell that anything was wrong. I am getting the Permethrin tomorrow & will dip the feet & legs in it. Just not sure what is going on! He comes out of the coop in the am, is out all day, & then acts like he can't wait for his treat in the pm of the scratch, which he eats up readily. Then, he's ready to roost, but just gets in the corner & looks like he's dead! This has been going on now for over a week. I'm gonna get the tapeworm wormer tomorrow as well.

 

[lmorto02]

Oh, and nothing new has been added or changed. Never use cedar~only pine & I keep the coop clean & dry.

 

[seminolewind]

Sounds like he's wasting away. They appear to be eating, but they lose weight. You may want to think about treating for coccidiosis. It could be something internal that you can't do anything about.

Have any of your chicks/chickens been exposed to other chickens ?

 

[lmorto02]

No new chickens or anything brought in. I had 18 chicks hatch out via the mom hen at the end of April, & they have all been out together the entire time. The new chicks are in the next coop, but they don't intermingle. I had put some sulfa (Sulmet) in the drinking water for a day or so, but was also worming and doing anything else I could think of to try to save him. Does anyone know if you can mix some of these meds, as they all go in the water, & chickens just don't drink that much water, to actually separate the meds. I'm going tomorrow to see what I can get to just treat this individual bird instead of adding anything to the water