Our rooster Big Red seems to be well not quite himself lately.
Most of our chickens are going through their annual moult so I am wonder if that has something to do with it. When it comes to moulting some chickens loose almost all their feathers at once and some loose them gradually. Big read looses his gradually and the only reason you know he is moulting is that he looses his big fancy tail feathers (I am sure there is a name for these).
Anyway back to Big Red.
So for the last few days he has spent a lot of time "sleeping" well I think that is what he is doing. You can walk right up to him and he doesn't even wake up.
Sometimes he is sitting down.
In addition to his sleepiness he is also not calling his girls like he normally does.
Maybe he is just taking some time for himself away from all the squawking women in his life?
I will keep an eye on him and see how he goes, but let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter.
When my girls do the sleeping thing it means they are sick...the pale comb also...he may be on the way out unfortunately, but I am no chook expert, so another reader may have a suggestion?
ReplyDeleteOh poor boy. I'm no expert either but that's what our chook did for a few weeks before she died too. Hope he recovers.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful rooster! He might be a bit quiet if he's molting, but you should check him for lice. The last few times we've noticed our chooks sitting around with their eyes shut we've found them covered in little lice. Pick him up and look him over, just to be sure. Also make sure he's got access to lots of minerals and healing herbs like comfrey, if he is sick, that might be enough to perk him up again.
ReplyDeleteSorry Fiona, but Big Red does not sound well, and I have no idea what could be troubling him. If he is still eating, drinking and pooing then he may just have a chooky virus. I would isolate him in a warm dry box with some water and feed and nurse him along for a day or so. Whenever our chooks look a little ¨off¨ they are scooped up and popped into chooky ICU for some close monitoring. Look for discharge from his eyes or nostrils, funny breathy sounds, changes in chook poo appearance. Feel his crop, is it soft and mobile or hard? He may have eaten something that has impacted his crop or something that simply does not agree with him.
ReplyDeleteMy old rooster Duncan presented a little like your Big Red, but Duncan is just getting old and couldn´t match it with the other rooster. We popped him in the special oldies run where he is still tootling along with a couple of the older girls.
Poor thing...hope he is back to normal soon!
ReplyDeleteYeah, sorry but big red does not look well. Is he an old rooster?
ReplyDeleteWe've had two bouts of that kind of sleepy chicken syndrome. The two girls were off for a few days (standing and sleeping, not as interested in food etc) but then came back to full health. We still don't know what it was but just kept an eye on them. So hopefully Big Red will do the same. Good luck!
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