Rooster choking

[KatiewithZena]

Hello all, I had a scary moment with my rooster today, I noticed him flapping about on the ground and his head and neck winding all over the place and stretching out backwards the he collapsed on the ground by the time I got to him, I picked him up and felt his neck and I was sure I could feel a lump so (his eyes were closed and his whole body was limp) I started trying to wiggle this lump up to his mouth, he mustn't have appreciated it because he started flapping about, which I was relieved to see he wasn't dead! I kept squeezing the lump up and when I opened his beak up I could see a whole heap of stuff in there, I tried to get it out but my fingers where to big for his mouth, my partner ran to get the vaccuum cleaner to suck it out and while he was gone I found a skinny stick and managed to dig and flick the shit in his throat out, he still looked no good so I gave him a few breaths and that helped, then my partner got our mini blower and put that over his beak and just kept gently blowing air in until he opened his eyes and started breathing on his own again! I also dripped some water into the side of his beak with a baby medicine syringe. I've put him in a box inside with some water and some carrot puree mixed with some mashed up salmon, he hasn't eaten any yet, but he did drink some water when I lifted bowl upto him.
I hope he can recover from the shock of it all over night and be OK tomorrow. Reading this thread I now realise he must have just choked on the chicken pellets I've just started giving them. I recently switched from whole grains because they were getting fussy and leaving wheat and some other grain and only eating the sunflower seeds, sorghum and corn. Tomorrow I will throw the pellets and go back to giving them whole grains.
I thought he might have choked on clay from all the deep digging we did in the backyard yesterday laying electric cable. But now I think it was the pellets. The stuff I flicked out dint look like clay..... Cheers all!!!

 

[Eggcessive]

He probably is suffering from a crop disorder. I agree that he was choking. Check his crop in early morning to see if it has emptied overnight (normal.) If not give him some water and offer some chips of chilled coconut oil, or a little egg with a tsp of olive or veg oil. Check his crop each morning to see if it is empty, full, hard, doughy, or soft/puffy.

Actually a balanced pellet feed would be better for him, but just put some in a bowl with water to make a mash. Whole grains are not a balanced feed. If you look at the bags, they have lower protein by more than half, and are not balanced at all.

 

[KatiewithZena]

OK thanks il

He probably is suffering from a crop disorder. I agree that he was choking. Check his crop in early morning to see if it has emptied overnight (normal.) If not give him some water and offer some chips of chilled coconut oil, or a little egg with a tsp of olive or veg oil. Check his crop each morning to see if it is empty, full, hard, doughy, or soft/puffy.

Actually a balanced pellet feed would be better for him, but just put some in a bowl with water to make a mash. Whole grains are not a balanced feed. If you look at the bags, they have lower protein by more than half, and are not balanced at

He probably is suffering from a crop disorder. I agree that he was choking. Check his crop in early morning to see if it has emptied overnight (normal.) If not give him some water and offer some chips of chilled coconut oil, or a little egg with a tsp of olive or veg oil. Check his crop each morning to see if it is empty, full, hard, doughy, or soft/puffy.

Actually a balanced pellet feed would be better for him, but just put some in a bowl with water to make a mash. Whole grains are not a balanced feed. If you look at the bags, they have lower protein by more than half, and are not balanced at all.

OK thanks I'll check his crop tomorrow morning and see how it is. Good to know about the pellet vs grain, I thought grains would be better for them because they're more expensive and not processed. So much to learn!

 

[Altairsky]

I also used to feed grains, then following the advice on this forum I switched to layer pellets thinking it was better for my girls.
They used to produce large eggs, with extra calcium deposits, with a white so thick it was hard to scramble. The yolk was bright orange. After a few months on the most expensive pellets I could find, I ended up with low quality eggs: thin shell, they explode when boiled, watery white and paler yolk, very similar to grocery store eggs.
Also the other day I found out that in my extremely humid and rainy climate, the pellets go moldy very quickly.
Now I'm back to grains and hope the egg quality will go back to what it was a few months ago.
Yes, grains alone don't have much proteins, but I add peas and cooked minced beef or boiled eggs, or since I have cows, colostrum curd. There are many healthy options to raise a chicken's protein intake. I tried layer pellets, I saw the difference, never again.
Layer pellets are also always bad for roosters if you have one.