Bootstrap, my feather footed banty rooster, is slowly improving. He slept on his feet last night for the first time since we found him nearly frozen. He is still in the house and will stay in the house until I am convinced that he can take care of himself outside. I am not sure what happened to him but he did show signs of leg mites and lice, that had most assuredly drained him plus his beak was frozen shut.
He is talking to me now when I go into the room, which is another sign that he is improving. We have taken care of his mite and lice problem, so he is starting to gain some weight and get his strength back.
The reason that I didn't notice that he was having a problem was because he stays in the goat/chicken shed all of the time with the little D'Uccles during the cold months. The rest of the crew are always out and about, so I can spot a problem with them but the D'Uccles and Bootstrap are always nestled in the straw of the nests or on the roosts. With his fluffy feather cover, I just could not see that he had lost so much weight and his foot feathers hid the leg mite damage.
3 comments:
HOW AWFUL! I'm so sorry to hear this! I worry so much about my animals in the winter or bad storms...my worse fear is your reality! I'm glad he is on the mend! I doubt Norm would let me bring them indoors if something happened..but then again..I'm pretty hard-headed! LOL I hope you had a Merry Christmas! Love the "fog" pics!
It was my DH who brought Bootstrap to the house and when the weather warmed up, I suggested that we take him back to the shed and my DH said, "No, not until you are sure he is 100%". This coming from a man who is always griping about how many worthless roosters that I have.
Glad he is doing better, sounds like you did the right thing bringing him inside.
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