Rudy's lost his voice :(

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Hi! Plse could someone advise me: Our 9 mnth old Maran rooster has recently lost his voice! His crow is virtually silent at this stage & any sound that he does manage to omit is strained & gastly sounding. I'm sure I could hear a rasping sound from him y/day but he'd not be tame enough to lift & inspect closely, except at night, (which I've not done because I don't like to upset the animals unnecessarily & have no idea what to look for!). Poor boy. He eats & seems alert enough, mating frequently with his 4 hens. He is with anything from 6 to 20 hens / chicks (depending on who's hatching & being sold, etc but only has 4 breeding hens to manage & no other roosters with which to struggle with), so he has a great life, pretty chilled! He is in an enclosure measuring over 1 000 square m, which is mowed almost wkly, he has good clean bedding, shelter from rain, trees, a huge clean & empty shed offering further shelter, fresh water daily, their own chicken coop... & spoils! So what could be wrong with Rudy? :( Thanks for any support offered! Kim
 
Sounds as though it might be a respiratory problem. Is the coop nice and dry and well ventilated?
 
Our Frankie (Gold laced Wyandotte) lost his very loud voice but otherwise he seemed fine for about a week but then he took a turn for the worse. It was a respiratory infection said the vet. After 10 days on Baytril it finally cleared up. It was caused by a very dusty coop. The bedding appeared clean and dry but it released clouds of dust when we cleaned it out. Gets done regularly now and he's been fine since. But at the time he had to come in he became so ill. Wouldn't eat or drink his throat was so sore.
Get Rudy to the vet straight away before the infection takes a firm hold.
 
Thank you for your imput! Jotting down the Baytril name. Hopefully I'm onto something here though: Called into a local vet y/day & discussed options, we decided to treat Rudy for gapeworm, first & foremost, using a one-off treatment of 7 drops of Fenbendazole. I did this last night & this morning there is a faint improvement in his crowing. I say FAINT! Not sure yet is this problem solved or is it indeed resperatory but if he's not better by tomorrow evening, I'm going to start treating him with something to tackle a respiratory problem. Just hope it's not that, I do want the animals to be healthy & not suffering. I'm dosing all the hens tonight for gapeworm, just in case. Their coop is large & can be opened almost fully for airation / cleaning purposes & I really don't think it's a matter of dust, but one never can be too sure. I use a mixture of shredded paper & sawdust for bedding & clean it out regularly, very regularly! Just hope I don't have to take the bird to the vet next!!! Thanks & will let you guys know what comes of all this! Hope the info helps others along the line too. Kim
 
Hi Kim,
Every time we have had a developing respiratory problem the vet has first mentioned gapeworm. We have treated several birds for apparent gapeworm without any success, but have not heard of Fenbendazole yet. So perhaps the one remaining with breathing difficulty (still laying and went broody last week) should have some of that. And I drove the 16 mile round trip to the vets this morning for Baytril for a hen which had breathing difficulties this morning!
 
Thanks darkbrowneggs. Not licenced for chickens and toxicity in some species observed so I'll rely on the Marriages Flubenvet premix unless urgent medication required.
 
Hi, y/day after work the vet had kindly put seperate doses of wormer ready for my hens. I later noticed it was another type of medication (Ivomec). Anyway, I dosed my girls & two new pullets last night. I did not dose any young chicks. Rudy is MUCH improved :) not quite crowing like his old self but he is working on it! I'm SO relieved. I will still watch him closely as I'm concerned about what 'chrismahon' has to say there, gosh I hope that this is not respiratory. Anyway I didn't think of it until this morning but I did put in a pond for the ducks a month ago & there was a lot of digging going on. The kiddies were feeding worms to the hens left, right & center ~ so I wonder if this has been the cause of all my problems? No amt of worming is going to help if one is going to dig a big hole & allow hens to feast upon hundreds of parasitic carrying worms! I feel really stupid now that I think about it but I had no idea! Last night, as well as worming all the hens & pullets, I also disolved a disprin into ea water container & this morning I gave the chooks a feast of potatoe salad with finely chopped onion & LOADS of chopped garlic this morning. I will never get the smell of garlic off me but I'm hoping it'll help them in some way! The things we do for our animals hey!!! Kim
 
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