Sick Chicken

[Horseofadifferentcolor]

I bought a brabanter rooster 10 days ago. The day after we got it we noticed he looked tired. He is confined to his own area. The next day had wheezing and mucus. I have tried the following things

1 electolights with vitamens
2 diatamasios earth on feathers and bedding
3 antibiotics for 9 days now
4 yesterday a super concoction I made him with apple cider, coconut oil, garlic and honey, and a tiny bit of crushed up vitamen with the antibiotics. He was eating and drinking lots until yesterday then he stopped.

We are going on day 10 now and this roo wants to live! He is not wheezing any more but is always "sleepy".
At first we were a little freaked out. This is our first sick chicken. After two days of research I calmed down if it was some of the real bad stuff he would be dead by now. Any ideas? Thanks for any help!

 

[Meager1]

You may want to contact the seller. If you got a sick one he might have others and may know what the correct treatment would be. I have had hundreds of chickens but never had one with the symptoms you describe.

I have had several roosters that did exhibit what appears to be sudden neck damage.

One day they were fine and the next day, couldn`t hold their heads up, they always died within a few days, no matter what I tried to do to help them.

In my situation, only roosters are effected by this and it is contained to a single rooster, what you describe might be contagious and you would want to know that it isn`t a kind of bird flue.

 

[Horseofadifferentcolor]

Thanks for the comments Meager 1,

From what I have read all the major scary things such as bird flu is that the bird dies within a few days or just hours. I did contact the owner and it turns out he only had the roo a week before selling him to me. All his birds were picking on him(probably cuz he was sick). All his birds are doing fine he says.
His head does not hang to the side but he droops all over, wings, neck, overall body posture. He is starting to regain red color on skin by beak. We are on day 10! Everymorning I hate to walk out to see him dead. At first I was freaking out about it, but now that I have watched him struggle to live for so long I dont know whats goiing on. The vet visit for a chicken around here is $88 dollars just to walk in the door. Other wise I would have already taken him in.
The other strange thing is he has been eating and drinking this whole time up until yesterday. The only thing I have not tried yet was wormer becuase I was told not to do that the same time as the antibiotics. So I gave a solution of apple cider vinager, garlic, olive oil, vitamens, and a very small amount of wormer with a siringe in his mouth. Not easy at all. I wear gloves and try to be very careful.
Sometimes hes awake and moving around and other time hes really sleepy and lethargic? 10 days though does not seem to match anything I have read about.

 

[Meager1]

I wish I had better advice, but I have never dealt with your situation.

Maybe you could change the feed to a high protein "wild game" food, the kind for ducks, turkeys etc, and grind it, to make it easier for the poor guy to eat.

You will most likely have to buy a large bag, but you can feed it to the others as well.

It is actually better for them anyway.

Give him only room temperature or luke warm water, instead of cold, and supplement his food with small hand-fulls of fresh grass and weeds, which they need to have as well.

They also like/need to have small bits of gravel and dirt like what is left on the roots when you throw in fresh grass etc.

Other then that, I just don`t know what might help. Good luck.

 

[Z...]

Sometimes hes awake and moving around and other time hes really sleepy and lethargic? 10 days though does not seem to match anything I have read about.

Sounds to me like this chicken is suffering from some developmental disorder, very often there would be one or few chicks in the batch presenting the same symptoms and eventually they waste away and die in spite of nutritional adjustments and medical care. This problem is poorly understood and not thoroughly investigated as it doesn't cause significant loss in mass production.

 

[Horseofadifferentcolor]

Sometimes hes awake and moving around and other time hes really sleepy and lethargic? 10 days though does not seem to match anything I have read about.

Sounds to me like this chicken is suffering from some developmental disorder, very often there would be one or few chicks in the batch presenting the same symptoms and eventually they waste away and die in spite of nutritional adjustments and medical care. This problem is poorly understood and not thoroughly investigated as it doesn't cause significant loss in mass production.

Thankyou for the info herr Eisenheim. The poor bird passed on day twelve. I learned a huge lesson on getting new chickens. I want to do everything possible to keep my ladies healthy. So I was wondering about always reading that chickens cannot have avacodo left overs becuase of the fat content they cannot handle it in the liver. But as the keto diet is revealing fat makes people healthy. Can it be the same for herbivors in relation to foods like sunflower seeds and other plants with high fat?
Im just wondering if they cannot process it only becuase they are mostley being fed low fat grains and if fat was slowley introduced into the diet if that would be better for them. Some of the advise I saw on chicken forums was to give them some olive oil when sick so why would avacodos be a problem?

 

[domi]

Thankyou for the info herr Eisenheim. The poor bird passed on day twelve. I learned a huge lesson on getting new chickens. I want to do everything possible to keep my ladies healthy. So I was wondering about always reading that chickens cannot have avacodo left overs becuase of the fat content they cannot handle it in the liver. But as the keto diet is revealing fat makes people healthy. Can it be the same for herbivors in relation to foods like sunflower seeds and other plants with high fat?
Im just wondering if they cannot process it only becuase they are mostley being fed low fat grains and if fat was slowley introduced into the diet if that would be better for them. Some of the advise I saw on chicken forums was to give them some olive oil when sick so why would avacodos be a problem?

Sorry to hear about the passing of your rooster.
You sure did try very hard to save him.

As far as the avocado toxicity, check out the following link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persin

I have to say that chickens are smart and they seem to have a sense for what is not good for them.

 

[Z...]

But as the keto diet is revealing fat makes people healthy. Can it be the same for herbivors in relation to foods like sunflower seeds and other plants with high fat?
Im just wondering if they cannot process it only becuase they are mostley being fed low fat grains and if fat was slowley introduced into the diet if that would be better for them. Some of the advise I saw on chicken forums was to give them some olive oil when sick so why would avacodos be a problem?

In fact most of the birds especially chicken are omnivores and we have short changed them by feeding them mostly grains. It is well known fact that sunflower seeds can kill parrots as they are highly addictive and the birds end up eating only them picking them out from other seeds. This causes condition known as fatty liver which is usually fatal.
I would think that vegetable fats should be avoided, instead you could supply fish meal with high fat content or else have your chicken in free range conditions( if possible) where they will be able to get plenty of earth worms, grubs bugs etc. In that case you will have very little need for any supplementation.

 

[Horseofadifferentcolor]

Thanks so much for this info! :D