Rooster Having Trouble Crowing in the Morning

[Saum Creek]

Hi all, I have a one-year-old rooster that is crowing funny for the past few days, most often in the mornings. Sometimes it sounds like he gets a bit choked up halfway through, and sometimes it's squeaky and a bit airy. He had done it once or twice before and it always made me laugh but this has been going on for days now.

He seems perfectly healthy otherwise -- red comb and wattles, no discharge, no sign of worms. He's eating and drinking and being his normal self.

Is this something to worry about? Anything I can do to prevent whatever it is from getting worse?

Thank you!

 

[LaFleche]

Does he shake his head a lot and/or stretches his neck with open beak?

If so it might be gape-worms and should be treated immediately by de-worming, as gape-worms might otherwise be able to lead to death by suffocation.

Edit: You might want to take a look into his beak, he might just have something stuck.

 

[Saum Creek]

Thank you! I haven't seen him shaking his head/stretching but obviously I'm not out there with him super often. Is a gape worm treatment something I can buy at Wilco or another farm store, do you know?

 

[LaFleche]

I am not familiar with the pharmaceutical products on offer in the U.S. as I am situated in Germany. I de-worm with Flubendazole 5% but was told recently that is is hard to get in the U.S.

But hopefully someone else might provide some information.

 

[LaFleche]

This is what I found : https://www.farmstore.com/?s=&cat=470&instock=false&pg=1

Being a rooster you will not have to consider the time for egg withdrawel.

Edit: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threadloom/search?keywords=gape+worm+treatment&tab=0

 

[Saum Creek]

The strange thing is, usually it's the case that he crows 3 times perfectly normally, then the 4th is garbled at the end, 5th is worse. Hmmm.

I gave him some VetRx this morning just to see if that helps, if not better tomorrow he's off to the vet.

 

[Saum Creek]

Well, he happily crowed 7 times in a row just a few minutes ago after administering the VetRx this morning so.... maybe we're on the up and up? He hasn't done that for days, usually at least by the 4th crow he was croaky. Is it possible it was just a... cold? Fingers crossed.

 

[LaFleche]

That's good to hear! Let's hope he has overcome it for good, whatever it was.