AGirlAndHerChickens
Chirping
- Sep 24, 2018
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I noticed Clark acting out of sorts a couple of weeks ago. He would stand with a sad figure, instead of the proud alpha stance he should've had. He was suddenly running from Lewis, one of the other roosters who seemed to have taken the leadership role. I had brushed his behavior off at first as I had thought he was upset about losing alpha position. It wasn't until a week later that I realized something was really wrong. He eventually stopped going outside altogether, and spent his days standing on the roost. I would shut the other chickens out of the coup for a short while in the morning to allow him to eat and drink a little. Eventually I noticed that he would lose his balance occasionally, so I moved him to the other side of the coup with two hens (it was the sick side of the coup. He was too big to fit into my quarantine brooder). He never lost his appetite and even seemed to enjoy eating. He drank well, but still continued to decline. He would stand with his head near the ground and butt in the air. Sometimes he'd randomly shuffle backwards or flap his wings. There wasn't anything unusual in the droppings. They even looked healthy, if not a little smaller than normal He was TERRIFIED of the chickens that would fly over from the other side, even though he had once been their alpha. They never hurt him, so I was confused. I would have to guide him around sometimes, and once found blood on my fingers, though I couldn't find where he was bleeding from. One evening he kept falling forward and onto his back and flapping his wings, but it eventually stopped. He just continued to live as before, seeming to grow slowly weaker, until we decided to cull him, this evening. It was horrible seeing him that way. As I had mentioned, he still wanted to eat and drink, and loved when I'd let him sit in the grass every day. My flock had taken to staying in the coup when I moved him. They loved him very much. What could this be? Can it hurt my other chickies? Can I fix it if it happens again?
Without a necropsy it's impossible to know what was wrong.
