I just want to share with everyone what happend to my little Cochin Rooster, Alfonzo. Approximately five weeks ago, my family and I went out of town and I had a friends 17 year old son come to my house and take care of all my animals. I have two dogs, a cat, a bearded dragon and 38 chickens. I had my chochin rooster, Alfonzo seperated from his girls because he was being very aggressive and mean towards the silkies that were in the same pen. I had a extra large enclosure that he would stay in durning the day and then after dark, I would let him back in the same coop as the girls. This was my way of "buying time" until I could figure out what to do with him as I loved him but him being mean to the silkies just wasn't acceptable. We left town on Thursday around noon and it was raining so I put Alfonzo in a wire dog crate on our front porch. I left expicit instructions to put him with the girls once it got dark. If it continued to rain during the day, he was to be put back in the dog crate but if it wasn't raining he could go back out in the large enclosure. We returned home the following Sunday and found that Alfonzo had never been taken out of the dog crate and in fact had been attacked by something. There were feathers everywhere, he had a giant bald spot on his chest/neck area and I could see his comb had been bleeding and was ripped partially of his head. I immediately called the person who had stayed at my house and to find out when Alfonzo had been attacked and why I wasn't told. I was told he was like that since the pet sitter had arrived Thursday around 5pm. Needless to say, I was absolutely horrified to hear that my little guy had been locked in the kennel even after he had been attacked and hurt 3 days earlier. I immediately set up a smaller kennel in the house and applied medicine to his injuries. By Monday evening, he couldn't stand, roost, open his eyes, eat or drink. I searched online for any advice or guidance as to help him. Everything I found told me to use a dropper to give him water. I did this every 10-15 minutes for 3 days. Alfonzo didn't improve in the least bit, so once again, I hit the internet. I found a website that said to give him a 50/50 solution of water and gatorade. I did this for 1 day, while still searching the internet for any and all advice and found that its actually quite dangerous as there is too much salt in gatorade and could actually do more harm than good. At this point it had been 8 days since his attack. I called a very good friend who also has chickens and she brought me some water with antibotics for diahrreha. She pointed out that he probably had an infection from whatever attacked him. Neither of us really felt the medicine she brought would help him but it was all either of us had at the time. I gave him that water along with raw egg for 2 days. Once again, I hit the internet, trying to find out what penicillian I should buy to help him. I found a forum somewhere, I wish I knew where, because I found exactly what I needed, called my local feed store and they had the exact penincillian I needed. i immediately went to the farm store and bought the medicine and syringes. The directions said to inject it in a "meaty" part of the chicken. Well, my poor little Alfonzo was small before he was attacked and now I was just horrified that he truly was nothing but bones! I finally found an area to inject the medicine and when I did, I got absolutely no reaction from Alfonzo. By this time I was emotionally a wreck. I had actually asked my husband on two seperate occasions to just "take care" of Alfonzo as he wasn't imporving in even the tiniest bit and I thought I was just prolonging his suffering. But, thankfully, my husband kept telling me to just give him a few more days. My husband is in the Army and was actually home for his two weeks of R&R from Afghanistan when all this happened. Well, he had to return to his unit a week and a half after Alfonzo was attacked. There was absolutely no way I would be able to "put him to rest" once my husband left so everyday, I was feeding and watering Alfonzo with a dropper, every 5-10 minutes. I also bought wheat grain baby cereal and pedialyte and combined them to a consistenancy that I could use the dropper to feed Alfonzo. Then about 3 weeks later, I had been cooking the egg and forcibly feeding him small pieces trying to give him some protein and solid food. He still wouldn't open his eyes, unless a loud noise startled him but he had started staying on his feet while sleeping instead of just laying on his side. I had an egg all scrambled up for him and he was on my lap and I had the egg in a small dish and was holding it in front of him while I tried to find a small piece for him when all of the sudden he opended his eyes and started eating on his own! I was so shocked and surprised! I had my cell phone near by and recorded him as I didn't think anyone would believe me! A few days later he started drinking on his own. I would take him outside numerous times through out the day so he could eat grass, bugs and whatnot and take a long overdue dirtbath. But I noticed that he had a huge lump in this neck and it appeared to be green. I could see it very easily as this was the area that was bald from the attack. I called my Dad and he suggested that it might be the food Alfonzo had been eating and that since he wasn't outside all the time he had to dirt, gravel, sand, etc to help break his food down in his craw. So in addition to regular outside trips, I put crushed oyster shells in his food and kennel. He was making enormous improvements everyday and then I noticed that whenever he got upset or scared he would put his head on the ground in front of him and kind of look upside down, all while standing up. He is a beautiful shiney black chicken and I finally was able to investigate his injuries as they were healing nicely and I found a puncture in his head. So I thought he must have brain damage. But as long as he could eat and drink on his own, I wasnt going to put him down. The days passed and with each new day, Alfonzo was improving 100% from the day before. It was almost six weeks ago that he was attacked. He has completely healed up and has no lingering problems and is now back out in the pen and coop with his girls. I will say, he is a bit more mellow and is much nicer to his ladies. I just wanted to share this with as many chicken lovers as possible. The total amount of money spent to help hiim heal was maybe $30, for food, medicine and pedialyte. It was worth every penny and every second I spent feeding him and giving him water. Please no matter how bad your chicken seems to be in he/she is hurt or ill, don't give up too soon, they just might surprise ya!
