Sick Rooster

Yesterday morning I found a mixed roo not up to snuff. He was sitting behind the nest box area and didn't get up to run outside. He also had his eyes closed. I hate when any of my animals get sick, I always feel so helpless. Gingerly I picked him up; I didn't want to hurt him if he had a physical injury. He didn't even bother to try to get away from me, he kept his eyes closed and his head was drooping a bit; not good. The list of 'not goods' is getting longer and longer with this rooster.

I checked him out and could find no wounds on the guy and his bottom looked fine. Holding a rooster upside down to check his netherlands is generally taken as a great affront to roosters. And this guy did convey his displeasure by clucking fairly adamantly. So now I have a bit of a list of good signs, which is also a good sign.

I secluded him and started calling him Micheal Moore, after the directer who makes documentaries including one about the American medicare crisis called "Sicko". Well, I had to call the roo something, and I already have about thirty chickens called "Hey You". I watched him all day and he just sat with his eyes closed. I think he might have drank a little but his food remained untouched. I wasn't feeling all that hopeful. You can never tell with chickens; it could have been something he ate, it could be a number of ailments chickens can get. All I can do is watch and if I find something specific, like wheezing or a wound, I can treat it with home remedies. Basically, I just watched him do nothing and hope he wasn't about to fade away.

At bed check, Micheal Moore had eaten some of his food, but was still really quiet and lying down. This morning when I went in, he was standing up and both eyes were open. His eyes were bright and he had eaten more food. He was also clucking at me. So there is a pretty big improvement. I let him out of the cage. While he did walk around and seem interested in his surroundings, he didn't seem much inclined to go into the main coop area and mix with the other chickens. So I'm going to leaving him walking around in the storage area today, getting a little fresh air and some exercise and see how it goes. Hopefully it was just something he ate. Chickens can get botulism very easily from something as innocuous as a moldy leaf. They do tend to get over it if it's just a mild case. Hopefully that's the case with Micheal Moore.