What’s wrong with my rooster!

[M Brennen]

I have had roosters before and this is the first time I have seen this. My barred rock rooster lost a spur, not to mention he has very red skin on his legs and underneath his tail. He is missing feathers and even missing some tail feathers. Does anyone know what might be going on and how to help him?

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Is he limping? Have you picked him up for closer inspection?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Have you picked him up to take a closer look?

Could be injury or some type of skin irritation. Hard to know.

 

[M Brennen]

Have you picked him up to take a closer look?

Could be injury or some type of skin irritation. Hard to know.

Have you picked him up to take a closer look?

Could be injury or some type of skin irritation. Hard to know.

He isn’t limping. It does appear to be skin irritation, but that wouldn’t explain the spur loss. I do have another rooster and he doesn’t seem to have it as badly, although I will check tonight when they roost. I did pick him up, but he was difficult to examine by myself. He has had the noticeable redness and loss of some feathers for months. I’m not sure how to treat it. Incidentally, he is the top rooster in the flock.

 

[M Brennen]

While viewing other posts with a similar problem it appears that it is lice or mites. What is the best way to combat this that is safe for egg layers?

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Change all the bedding and thoroughly scrub the coop. If you have any anti-mite spray ot would be useful. Leave the coop for a bit then put new bedding. When you change the bedding, mix it with Diatomaceous earth.
That's how I dealt with my mite infestation

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Dust all the chickens with DE

 

[humblehillsfarm]

DE may help reduce the mite load, but I've not found it super effective for active cases. I puffed permethrin (Poultry Dust) around the vent area of all my birds and mites were gone in less than 24 hours. I'm pretty much at the point in my life that I don't mess around with "probable" methods for anything. It's all or nothing, and permethrin will get the job done. It does wonders for my cabbage looper problem too.

Ivermectin or other oral mite treatments are effective for scaly mites, but permethrin and other poultry dusts are not very effective for scaly mites.

 

[M Brennen]

Change all the bedding and thoroughly scrub the coop. If you have any anti-mite spray ot would be useful. Leave the coop for a bit then put new bedding. When you change the bedding, mix it with Diatomaceous earth.
That's how I dealt with my mite infestation

I have a run attached to my coop. It’s a dirt floor, so no way to clean that out. I do change the shavings in the coop weekly, but then put the old ones in the run. I can scrap down the dirt in the run and lay diatomaceous earth. I use diatomaceous earth regularly. I can’t move the birds though as I have no place to put them.

 

[LaFleche]

With long spurs growing rather inwards than backwards, older roosters will get irritations on their inner joints, as the long spurs scrape along the joints with every step they take. Sitting comfortably on the roosting bar is also a problem, as these spurs dig right into the legs.

I have seen it on some of my roosters and it stopped soon after trimming back the spurs using a Dremel and treating the irritated areas with salve.

Losing feathers this time of years is normal, as the birds begin their yearly molt. My roosters plumage looks rather pathetic at the moment, but they soon will be back to their former glory.