rooster lost all tail feathers

sweet koko

In the Brooder
Sep 27, 2015
13
2
30
This rooster is now 20 weeks. At 6 weeks he was bitten in the butt by a coyote. He crawled out of the woods 12 hours later with his wounds covered with maggots. After 2 days of war on the maggots he started getting better and 2 weeks later he was in full health with just couple of tail feathers missing and integrated with the flock. About 3 weeks ago he started to lose the rest of the feathers and now he is completely tail less. There is no evidence of any pecking,at least I have never witnessed any of our other roosters or hens even paying any attention to his tail and we do spend fair amount of time with or around the flock. (our flock was hatched in June so all 9 are about 20 weeks old). Not that it matters but is he going to remain tail less? Another questions. We are getting addicted to chickens. With 4" x 8" chicken coop and 7 nesting boxes, how many more can we get without overcrowding the coop?
We now have 9. Thanks for helping.
 
If unsure, it's always better to give them more room than less, so I would wait until you need more egg layers before adding more. Being 20 weeks old they'll lay well for quite a while. So, just be patient and enjoy the ones you have now.

In my opinion, roosters with short tails are quite adorable. As long as he's healthy and there's no infection at the base of the tail feathers, you probably won't know if he'll stay tailless until molting time. Sounds like he had quite an ordeal, and he's very fortunate.
 
If unsure, it's always better to give them more room than less, so I would wait until you need more egg layers before adding more. Being 20 weeks old they'll lay well for quite a while. So, just be patient and enjoy the ones you have now.

In my opinion, roosters with short tails are quite adorable. As long as he's healthy and there's no infection at the base of the tail feathers, you probably won't know if he'll stay tailless until molting time. Sounds like he had quite an ordeal, and he's very fortunate.
x2 on this advice.
 
If unsure, it's always better to give them more room than less, so I would wait until you need more egg layers before adding more. Being 20 weeks old they'll lay well for quite a while. So, just be patient and enjoy the ones you have now.

In my opinion, roosters with short tails are quite adorable. As long as he's healthy and there's no infection at the base of the tail feathers, you probably won't know if he'll stay tailless until molting time. Sounds like he had quite an ordeal, and he's very fortunate.
x3
 
I think we did, he recovered completely and has had no negative symptoms since then. Would there be any symptoms?
Thank you
 
Earlier this year while trying to catch my polish rooster I grabbed him by the tail and out came his whole tail feathers, that was five months ago, we culled him a month ago and his tail had never really grown back in in that time, I think it will take your rooster a long time and maybe won't be back to normal until his first molt next year, though if he hasn't finished his baby molts he might still get it back but it will take a while.
 

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