What's wrong with my rooster?

[ThaiDye]

Hello, I am new to this forum. I come here a lot, but hardly post. I do need some advice right now, though. My EE roo, Jasper had some crud on his eye today. I thought it was an injury & sprayed it with Vetericyn. But looking more closely, it looks more like a cold of some sort. We have had some cold windy days lately & he never goes in the coop with the girls. I have other shelter & some wind breaks, but he got sick anyway.

I did remove him from the hens & they all look okay except for 1 who has a tiny bit of mucus also. I have tetracycline hydrochloride, but have never used it. I've only been into chickens for about a year. Could someone please help?

I have isolated the roo, but thought I should medicate the whole flock just in case. They are all contained in a pen about 250 sq ft & I have 14 chooks in all.

I've included a picture of Jasper. Thank you in advance for any advice.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v... Uploads/775155_4995942933047_741907301_o.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 775155_4995942933047_741907301_o.jpg"/>

 

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He may have been injured and is now developing an infection. He may also have fowl pox. If he has fowl pox your other chickens may show these symptoms too. Fortunately this usually isn't fatal. It will take a few weeks to get over them. Separate him from the other chickens. Try warm compresses to his eye. Some ophthalmic antibiotic may help too. Keep him warm. Watch your other chickens for symptoms.

 

[Funky Chooks]

I wonder if there could be a small foreign object under his lid? A grain of sand or something like that?

Poor fella, hope he improves soon!

Have you considered flushing his eye with saline somehow? Not sure if this is a good idea though.

 

[ThaiDye]

We sprayed his eye with Vetericyn which cleans & helps heal many kinds of injuries & infections. He is isolated from the flock, but I noticed 1 hen is also showing mucus in the eyes & another hen was coughing. I turned off their auto-watering system & am giving all the flock Terra Vet 10 at a strength of around 400 mg.
The black spots on Jasper's comb don't look like pox. I have 2 roos in the pen (brothers) & just lately they started sparring a little, but give up very quickly. I think the spots may be dried blood. The other roo is much smaller & has always played second fiddle to Jasper. I know the hen/roo ratio is off & I am getting more hens, but not until these get better.

 

[Michael Apple]

We sprayed his eye with Vetericyn which cleans & helps heal many kinds of injuries & infections. He is isolated from the flock, but I noticed 1 hen is also showing mucus in the eyes & another hen was coughing. I turned off their auto-watering system & am giving all the flock Terra Vet 10 at a strength of around 400 mg.
The black spots on Jasper's comb don't look like pox. I have 2 roos in the pen (brothers) & just lately they started sparring a little, but give up very quickly. I think the spots may be dried blood. The other roo is much smaller & has always played second fiddle to Jasper. I know the hen/roo ratio is off & I am getting more hens, but not until these get better.

It looks like Coryza to me. Coryza is a fast spreading respiratory disease, a form of CRD (Chronic Respiratory Disorder). Does the bird stink and is the exudate from the eye and nose cheesy? If so I'd say Coryza. Seperate the bird from the flock. I'd give a half cc of Tylan 50 under the skin on the back of the neck for 5 days. If it is a big bird do that plus a half cc in the breast muscle. Keep Vitamins Electrolytes Plus in the drinking water and keep the bird well fed. Some people are scared of injections, but once you get familiar with it, it is easy and the quickest way to get medicine activated.

If you want to treat the entire flock, you can mix half Chlortetracycline and half Gallimycin in a jar and put a teaspoon per gallon in the drinking water for 14 days. If the surroundings are filthy, remove the birds to a temporary location, clean it up thoroughly removing shavings/dust, disinfect with Oxine or a phenol disinfectant, let dry and put down new shavings, then treat the birds right after. The problem with CRD is that it is spread from bird to bird directly or in the drinking water. Some birds after recovering from the disease can still be carriers. If a bird dies, you have a postmortem exam done, and they test positive for Mycoplasma, you'll need to cull the entire flock. If it is Coryza, you can vaccinate the unaffected birds subcutaneously and any future birds you may bring onto the premises.

 

[ThaiDye]

I showed the picture to a local feed store owner & he said it is Coryza. He literally said almost word for word what Michael said (thank you very much). I have injected the 3 birds showing symptoms & they are isolated from the rest of the flock. I am going to continue to give all the birds the Terra Vet 10 for the full 2 weeks just to be safe. I removed all the eggs & will destroy all eggs laid while medicating. Does anyone know how long after the medication is stopped before I can collect eggs again?

The roosters eye is pretty crusted over. He can still open it a little. I tried to soften it with warm water, but it will take several applications. The store owner said to put a tiny bit of vaseline to soften it up otherwise it can seal shut. I also sprayed the area with Vetericyn as that will clean it out.

Thank you everyone for the advice. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Michael Apple]

I'm glad you got on the road to treatment. What would be better than Vaseline for the eye is Neomycin and Polymyxin B Sulfates that contains Dexamethasone (Neo-Poly-Dex eye ointment). I used it once on one of my Rocks that developed an eye infection and it was gone in a couple days. Let us know how it goes. It's always satisfying to see them get back to good health.

 

[ThaiDye]

As it was, I didn't have any Vaseline so I put a very tiny amt of olive oil on the crust to try to soften it. I'll try to get the neomycin tomorrow. The coughing hen has a rattle sound when she breathes. The other hens eyes looked better today, but the roos eye has a lot of crust. I felt really bad because the coughing hen bled a little after the injection this morning. I hope she will be okay

 

[Michael Apple]

As it was, I didn't have any Vaseline so I put a very tiny amt of olive oil on the crust to try to soften it. I'll try to get the neomycin tomorrow. The coughing hen has a rattle sound when she breathes. The other hens eyes looked better today, but the roos eye has a lot of crust. I felt really bad because the coughing hen bled a little after the injection this morning. I hope she will be okay

Too bad you don't live near me. I could give you what you need to treat the birds. If you can't get Neo-Poly-Dex from a vet, most of the feed stores carry Terramycin eye ointment which will help too. You could always order online but you don't have time to waste. The Tylan should help with the rattles. You should be using a 25 gauge needle. If you see blood, then you hit a vein is all. What you can do if you are doing an injection in the breast muscle is stick the needle, pull back a hair and if you see blood backing in the syringe, gently take it out and move to a different location. I locate the breast bone with my finger and move it to left or right of a meaty area of the breast. Don't hit the same location each time you treat the bird. I go left side one day, right side the next. It may help to have an assistant help part the feathers so you can see clearly. Be sure to swab the bottle tip, the needle with an alcohol soaked cotton ball. Swab the site of injection before sticking the bird too.