Bird going light

I've got a cock bird here, feeding 2 young at 8 days old, he was fine yesterday and I saw him feed this morning, fed them this evening and noticed he was resting on 1 wing while he ate, left him finish eating then picked him up to have a look as I thought his wing was sore, but he's as light as a feather, no body weight on him at all, just looking at him he looks fine, eyes bright, feathers not fluffed up, anyone know a quick fix as if I try and order stuff now I'm not going to get it until Monday, thanks guys.

Lofty wrote:

I've got a cock bird here, feeding 2 young at 8 days old, he was fine yesterday and I saw him feed this morning, fed them this evening and noticed he was resting on 1 wing while he ate, left him finish eating then picked him up to have a look as I thought his wing was sore, but he's as light as a feather, no body weight on him at all, just looking at him he looks fine, eyes bright, feathers not fluffed up, anyone know a quick fix as if I try and order stuff now I'm not going to get it until Monday, thanks guys.

There is a difference between being light for racing and/or condition or putting effort into raising young birds and emaciated due to illness.
I would look at the condition of the young birds in the nest. If they are looking good and growing as they should then no problem other wise look for worms, canker etc:

The resting on one wing is the real puzzle, has he knocked himself ?

I've checked his wing and all is fine, it's like he's to weak to stand and eat so he rests on his wing while eating, the young are good, well fed and growing nicely, no sign of canker and the birds were wormed before we put them down to breed, I'm wondering now, is it the effort of pumping food into the ybs, his hen is great no loss of weight at all

When I asked has he knocked him self I should have said his leg. If he is resting on his wing to feed then one or both legs could be damaged in some way.

How does he feed the young birds, on his feet or on his wing ?

Didn't look at his legs/feet, will have a look first thing in the morning, didn't see him feed the ybs, while I was there the hen fed them, I'll spend a bit more time with them tomorrow to see how he goes

I had the same thing happen to my stock hen last year it happened after she had almost finished rearing her 2nd round. Couldn't stand up, she went very light.
She was a very good feeder.
I took her young away, put her on her own to recover in a hospital hutch.
I gave her dyoralites and food and grit in front of her, and she was fine after 2 or 3 days.
She's a very healthy robust hen and she was the last one I expected it to happen to.

It sounds like it could be polynueritus to me and old hands pollyvene will pull the hen round.

Good luck Mate

Thanks for the replys lads, I'll get some dioralyte in the chemist tomorrow and try that

Lofty wrote:

Thanks for the replys lads, I'll get some dioralyte in the chemist tomorrow and try that

For me     take the cock away from his mate & try to foster at least one of the babies in another nest as such. Hard enough to breed healthy youngsters when both parents are100% etc. This cock at the moment is not so why bash your head against a wall in hope Lofty.
*****

That's what I'll try tomorrow knackered, I think I can juggle 1 youngster to another nest and I can sort out the cock quietly on his own then, he's a nice bird and I wouldn't want to lose him

Lofty wrote:

That's what I'll try tomorrow knackered, I think I can juggle 1 youngster to another nest and I can sort out the cock quietly on his own then, he's a nice bird and I wouldn't want to lose him

Win, win & with a wee bit of luck Lofty your cock may just live to fight another day "Hopefully" etc.

try giving tha bird a brewers yeast tablet for 3 days on the bounce also make sure he has plenty pink and black mineral you could give marmite in the drinking water I reckon he could be lacking vitamin b12 its difficult to get into the diet ...how old is the cock

oldstrain wrote:

try giving tha bird a brewers yeast tablet for 3 days on the bounce also make sure he has plenty pink and black mineral you could give marmite in the drinking water I reckon he could be  lacking vitamin b12 its difficult to get into the diet  ...how old is the cock

first thing I thought of lofty, what Darren has just said.......a couple of years ago I had a hen went like similar to this, she was also constantly searching for something while rearing ybs, on darrens advise he told me to always give plenty of the kilpatricks black minerals, which I did every day along with their normal grit......after a few days the hen was looking a lot better, and ive never had this problem since.

also I would make sure the parents feeding ybs are getting plenty of grit, minerals (calcium), food and also g10 pellets which are invaluable during rearing and also contain minerals/vitamins etc.

that's just my opinion anyway, hope the bird pulls through...

Grit is always available for them , refreshed every couple of days, minerals, black and pink they get fresh every morning as they murder it as soon as it's put down, avidress in the water every day, spent some time watching him this morning, when I went down he was stood on the edge of his box, put the corn down and he flew straight down to feed, ate well and flew straight back to his box and fed the ybs, waited till he finished and picked him up, and no body on him at all, I just think he's feeding the ybs well and has lost some condition as he look ok apart from body weight

you may be right lofty, feeding ybs may be just taking it out of him and he hopefully will be ok once the ybs have gone......