Torn tendon recovery & reintegration

[LilFrenchies]

Our little bantam roo (lil Mayo) of 4 months suddenly started limping one day. Checked for injuries or bumble foot, but nothing. He seemed to just be getting on with it and eating drinking socializing very normal so we left it. Four weeks ago I came home to find him in the bushes completely stressed out and unable to balance or walk - literally face planting when he tried. I kept him inside for a week confined, a bit better but not much - eating & drinking always. Finally, trip to the chick vet two weeks ago revealed torn tendon and she put the entire leg in a splint! He's been put out in the garden every day to get the dirt between his toes, fresh air, and some light foraging (where he sits only!), of course kept isolated from the others. However, brother polish roo (toupac) has now started making it his mission to escape his side and attack lil Mayo!!! Luckily I was outside the three times it happened so could save him - they're both normally super sweet Roos allowing us to carry them around pet them etc. Never attack us at all and it seems that toupac now just wants to dominate lil Mayo who goes completely submissive when it happens (probably because no choice since the splint makes him pretty immobile!). Any advice on how long a torn tendon takes to heal or how I should try to get these two Roos to be buddies again??

 

[rebrascora]

Do you just have the two males or do you have females as well. Unfortunately they are reaching adolescence, when their true character emerges and it is fairly normal for males to be aggressive towards one another(you may also see a change in response to people too), particularly when one is sick or injured, especially if there are females to compete over. It is also normal behaviour for them to run a sick/ill chicken out of the flock, so your guy Tupac has two good reasons to want to be rid of Mayo.
I'm sceptical about it being a torn tendon (chickens are pretty tough and in my experience, rarely get injured of their own accord) and I think it may be Marek's disease, in which case he could suddenly improve almost overnight or deteriorate over a period of weeks/months as paralysis/tumours take over. If it really is a tendon, it will be similar to a sprain for us, which often take longer to heal than a broken bone, especially in the leg of a chicken which has very little muscle for support.

I would build a cage for Mayo (or use a dog cage) so that he has his own safe space where he can see the other chickens without direct contact and risk, but I would not attempt to reintegrate him until he is fully fit again and you have plenty of time to supervise them and even then, keeping two cockerels with females is a risk both to them and the females, unless you have a good female to male ratio and one of them is a mature male. The other option is to keep the males in a bachelor pad away from the females (assuming you have hens/pullets) but again, only once lil Mayo is completely fit.

 

[FLChickens]

My first roo (sweet little Jap bantam) I raised almost as a pet. When he grew up ... his demeanor changed and we had to re-negotiate our relationship.

I've had multiple Roos in a flock, but they need enough hens, and in my case they also made use of enough area to spread out with their particular hens. They all slept happily together at night in a central coop, but would sort themselves into different pastures. Any declining roo would always be at risk from up-and-coming ones, so I had to keep an eye on that and sometimes pen extras to keep the peace. That farm was about 100 hens, usually 5-7 loose Roos, and about 5 acres divided into pastures and yards.

Just a bit of conversation. I think rebrascora is right. The tightest concentration of adult Roos I've ever had work was three on about 1/2 acre, where two were brothers raised together (Brahmas) and had 20+ hens, and my little Jap bantam who was older and senior, and had his 7 or so favorites. That was a very peaceful flock, including ducks and geese (well, one gander could be a jerk, and one drake was too, but his bill could only dibble) ... other than giving the gander a bit of space, everyone got on beautifully. I miss that little flock.

 

[rebrascora]

Yes, I have kept multiple cock birds in the same flock with hens but having a mature senior rooster and plenty of space are key to it working.

 

[FLChickens]

Yes, I have kept multiple cock birds in the same flock with hens but having a mature senior rooster and plenty of space are key to it working.

I actually like having a senior roo. I don't have enough space now for more than one - I'm going to be pushing it having enough hens to keep one roo happy, depending on the roo. But right now those silly silkies are a sometimes a bit too contentious about rank, now that they have chicks. I'm looking forward to a roo keeping them in order. With my larger flocks, the senior roo always stopped any fighting between everyone else.

I love conscientious roosters.

 

[LilFrenchies]

Thanks for all the feedback! I'm pretty novice when it comes to raising chickens, so it's all very helpful

So, I brought home 6 chicks that I was told were all hens. YEA RIGHT. In fact, the two Roos emerged a couple months ago. We have raised them as pets and have handled them daily so they are extremely tame, which is what we were aiming for.....so "tick" on that one!

They have 1800m2 of garden to roam around in and have quite a large gen house with a chicken run attached if I need to keep them contained for any reason (like when we're cutting grass, have visitors, etc).

At the moment Toupac seems to be very happy with two hens (Kiki and Gucci) and one hen (Tikka) is left roaming around on her own most of the time. As Mayo was getting lonely, and I want to keep him social, I've been putting tikka in with Mayo in the contained run during the day and then pulling Mayo out at night to go inside. Tikka then cuddles up at night with the others and seems to work well. There's no fence fighting or stalking going on, toupac seems very calm and just sits quietly in the garden at times watching what Mayo and tikka are doing.

I plan to keep doing this until Mayo is fully revovered. Then see what happens before thinking of rehoming one of the Roos.

I had no idea a roo needed so many hens!!

 

[rebrascora]

Handling young cockerels is not actually a good idea. They become too familiar and then can lose respect for you when they come of age and decide to push the boundaries and challenge you. Polish can have attitude, which you are starting to see with him jumping the fence and having a go at Mayo, so do be aware that he may not continue to be friendly towards you, particularly if there isn't an older rooster or older hens to teach him some manners.

The reason it is best to have a large female to male ratio with chickens is that roosters are usually very virile and constantly mating the hens. Young roosters (cockerels) particularly so. Their technique is not good but they have rampant hormones driving them but no etiquette, so they are constantly grabbing pullets and mating them whether they like it or not. This often results in the pullets and hens losing feathers off their head/neck shoulders and back and raw spots can occur as well as rips to the skin where their talons dig in. Some pullets end up being literally scalped by them. Two young males will compete to mate the same females, effectively gang raping them..... usually the pullet at the bottom of the pecking order will take the brunt of their attentions. It can get rather unpleasant when those male hormones kick in. Hence if you are going to have multiple males, it's better to have an older rooster who will keep the young boys in check and whose technique will be more gentlemanly with the younger pullets.