WHAT IS THIS???? Please help!

NC29mom

Songster
9 Years
Jun 15, 2010
525
12
121
Scotland Neck, NC
I just cannot figure out what is going on with our rooster, Jr. I have sprayed him for mites, and lice, with no improvement. I have also given him a 7 day course of IM Pencillin G. No changes. Has anybody ever seen this before? He is in a very large area (1/2 acre) with about fifty hens, and 2 other roosters. None of the other hens, or roosters, have this problem. He is the dominant rooster. Please let me know if you think you can help!!!

 
Hmm. Almost looks like he is being over-groomed by his affectionate ladies. Does he have any other symptoms? Acting strangely? Also, what is that lump in the last two pics? Just a trick of the camera, or is it actually there?
 
Well, he started off being with 6 hens in a smaller coop. We moved him to the larger area, and he was alone for about a month. No improvements. We thought maybe a change of location would make a difference. Anyway, we eventually added about 50 young hens. No other chicken has shown any feather problems. And, no, he is not exhibiting any other symptoms, other than looking like something is yanking his feathers out one by one. And, if you notice, it's only in the front.....the rest of his feathers are perfect. We were wondering if he wasn't doing it to himself, but we have never seen him, or any of the hens, picking feathers. I think the lump is just a play on the camera; but then again, maybe not. When it cools off, I will go take a look. He's a very friendly rooster. Here are some more pictures........

 
How old is this rooster? Judging by his spurs I would say he's not much more than a year unless you've removed his spurs at some point. If he truly is a young bird he should look a lot better than he does. The feathers on his body look disheveled and he lacks the beautiful sheen that most roosters, especially young ones, should have. My best guess is he's got an infestation of parasites whether internally or externally that's causing the lack of good plumage.
Valbazen is a good broad spectrum wormer. I use 1/2 cc for standard size chickens and 1/4 cc for bantam.
Permethrin is good for external parasites like mites and lice.
If you've gotten rid of the problem it may take him a long time to for his plumage to look better and you might not see a real improvement until after he moults. It may be the reason you haven't seen an improvement after spraying him for mites and lice. The only other thing I can think of is a possible nutritional deficiency but given the amount of space they have and the fact that the hens look so good I doubt that's the case.
 
Maybe he is sticking his neck through the fencing and breaking his feathers? But that wouldn't affect the state of his body feathers, soooo...I don't know. Maybe not
 
How old is this rooster? Judging by his spurs I would say he's not much more than a year unless you've removed his spurs at some point. If he truly is a young bird he should look a lot better than he does. The feathers on his body look disheveled and he lacks the beautiful sheen that most roosters, especially young ones, should have. My best guess is he's got an infestation of parasites whether internally or externally that's causing the lack of good plumage.
Valbazen is a good broad spectrum wormer. I use 1/2 cc for standard size chickens and 1/4 cc for bantam.
Permethrin is good for external parasites like mites and lice.
If you've gotten rid of the problem it may take him a long time to for his plumage to look better and you might not see a real improvement until after he moults. It may be the reason you haven't seen an improvement after spraying him for mites and lice. The only other thing I can think of is a possible nutritional deficiency but given the amount of space they have and the fact that the hens look so good I doubt that's the case.
OK....that's one thing we haven't done.....treat for intestinal parasites. And, yes, he is young. You guesseed it right on the money, about one year old. His brothers are absolutely gorgeous, which is why we are so concerned about him. There's no way possible it's nutritional deficiency. We feed cracked corn, layena, mealworms, boiled eggs, cabbage, broccoli, and watermelon, when we can find it.

I'm just trying to figure out how we will get him the Valbazen (is that the same as Wazine? because i have that already in my chicken medicine cabinet). I hate to keep separating him, because then he has to fight the other two roosters for dominancy again. I wish it was in an injectable form. Although, we could just treat the whole flock. It's not like we are eating the eggs, or anything. (We get so many eggs, we just feed them back to the birds.)

THANKS SOOOOOOO MUCH!! WE ADORE JR. AND DON'T WANT TO LOOSE HIM. His father was murdered by a fox last year, and I am still grieving his loss. I will let you know how it goes.........
 
No, Wazine is a different (only round worm) wormer. You could also use the ivermectin pour on. According to another post earlier, you use .5cc dropped on the back of the neck of LF and .25 on bantam breeds (using a syringe, not injecting) under the feathers so it gets on the skin. I haven't used it myself yet (in a couple of weeks following the wazine treatment). The manufacturer of Heartgard (an ivermectin product) says that caution must be used not to overdose when going off label with the liquid dosing product. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_ivermectin.html

Sharol
OK....that's one thing we haven't done.....treat for intestinal parasites. And, yes, he is young. You guesseed it right on the money, about one year old. His brothers are absolutely gorgeous, which is why we are so concerned about him. There's no way possible it's nutritional deficiency. We feed cracked corn, layena, mealworms, boiled eggs, cabbage, broccoli, and watermelon, when we can find it.

I'm just trying to figure out how we will get him the Valbazen (is that the same as Wazine? because i have that already in my chicken medicine cabinet). I hate to keep separating him, because then he has to fight the other two roosters for dominancy again. I wish it was in an injectable form. Although, we could just treat the whole flock. It's not like we are eating the eggs, or anything. (We get so many eggs, we just feed them back to the birds.)

THANKS SOOOOOOO MUCH!! WE ADORE JR. AND DON'T WANT TO LOOSE HIM. His father was murdered by a fox last year, and I am still grieving his loss. I will let you know how it goes.........
 
How old is this rooster? Judging by his spurs I would say he's not much more than a year unless you've removed his spurs at some point. If he truly is a young bird he should look a lot better than he does. The feathers on his body look disheveled and he lacks the beautiful sheen that most roosters, especially young ones, should have. My best guess is he's got an infestation of parasites whether internally or externally that's causing the lack of good plumage.
Valbazen is a good broad spectrum wormer. I use 1/2 cc for standard size chickens and 1/4 cc for bantam.
Permethrin is good for external parasites like mites and lice.
If you've gotten rid of the problem it may take him a long time to for his plumage to look better and you might not see a real improvement until after he moults. It may be the reason you haven't seen an improvement after spraying him for mites and lice. The only other thing I can think of is a possible nutritional deficiency but given the amount of space they have and the fact that the hens look so good I doubt that's the case.
x2
 

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