Cock Fight - Ameraucana Roo w/ face injuries - suggestions please

[Kim_NC]

Oh No! My Ameraucana roo, Hermes, got out of his area, went 'next door' and fought with my Blue Copper Marans roo some time early Sun AM. I found him around Noon, he was outside the Marans area, terribly beat-up and laying in the grass. The Marans roo was "home' inside his own fenced area, but had dried blood on his comb and wattles - so I'm certain it was a fight. They either fought through the chicken wire fence - or perhaps Hermes got in the Marans pen and then managed to vacate after loosing the fight.

So my dear Hermes! He was in obvious pain when I found him. The right eye was completely swollen shut. The left eye was a "slit" but open. His comb and cheeks are beat up terribly.

I mixed vitamins/electrolytes and Sulmet anitibiotic in water immediately. DH held him and I got him to drink with an eye dropper. We did that 3 times yesterday, and of course put him in an isolated pen. He did readily drink the medicated water. And he stood, sleeping on his feet, and moved around between our visits.

Last night I fell asleep praying he would live. This morning he is more alert. But his right (worst) eye looks even more swollen and is draining. He's holding his left eye closed for the most part. He readily ate cooked liver from my hand, and gulped more water from an eye dropper. He stands and moves on his own. He also clucked that happy "announcement" that roos do (when they normally see you coming), when we picked him up to treat him. Although, I honestly think if he could see us, it was barely at all - he just knows us and our voices.

I'm very encouraged that he acts a little stronger this morning, will eat and drink, and stands.

So what to do about his eyes? They need medical care.
DH is going in town for errands this morning. I told him to get a salene eye wash solution to clean them. Has anyone ever applied something like a triple-antibiotic to a chicken's eyes? What can I use that would be safe for him.

This is Hermes, before he got beat up.

 

[easttxchick]

Poor Hermes!
Try Terramyacin opthalmic ointment-it can be put in his eye and is for infection.
I'm glad he's eating and standing-both good signs.

 

[Kim_NC]

Thanks, Easttxchick. DH is going to get that as well, or another brand of opthalmic ointment w/anitbiotic based on what they have available at our local farm stores/feed stores. Most of them do carry the Terramyacin antibiotic for water....surely they'll have an eye ointment in that brand or another.

Unfortunately we do not have a vet around here who specializes in bird species.

 

[CMV]

I had a duck fight earlier this winter and one of my ducks' eyes was injured. I originally thought the eye was lost in the fight, but a closer examination revealed that it was still there, just injured- lid ripped open, eye gooping and weeping, and generalized swelling all around. I applied Neosporin directly to the eye a few times over a couple days and the eye recovered nicely. I am not sure if the bird's vision was affected by the injury. I will need to figure that out when spring rolls around and the birds can free-range, but the original injury healed up well. No problems.

I hope your guy recovers with all his faculties intact. Good luck.

 

[Kim_NC]

Thanks CMV, for sharing your encouraging story....and the well wishes.

When we treat Hermes' eyes today, I'm going to apply triple-antibiotic (not Neosporin, another brand since that's what we have) to his beaten earlobes and cheek area.

 

[RedJasper]

I had a RIR hen that got a small growth on her eye. The vet snipped it off and put bacitracin or neosporin on it. (Sorry for the poor spelling!).

Best wishes,
Keri

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

This is our Silkie roo after he got injured by his son, his comb had been hanging off the side of his head and a flap of scalp had been hanging by a thread:

this photo, his little hen friend Rosie stayed by him for days, just keeping him warm and safe.

We found him and his son laying on their sides, still locked in combat hanging onto each other's head pieces, panting. They were easily seperated, when in fight mode they don't notice anything else. We carried him into the house, showered off all the blood, continued to rinse about 2 minutes and stuck down the scalp and comb, held it in place until it stopped bleeding, about 3 minutes. We washed our hands with soap and water before trying to put the scalp back on. (In the hospital we call this procedure an Irrigation and Debridement or I&D)

We didn't use any neosporin. We were lucky, it has turned out well. No abcess formed, the comb healed and the scalp healed, but his former fluff has never come back. He is otherwise a very healthy rooster today. Here he is before the fight:

Here he is 2 years later, last month guarding over his flock:

Now, we keep the babyroos seperated from the rest of the flock starting when they like to spar. They have a bachelor pen.

I think a vet would be a good idea, for an injured eye. I think saving an eye is a little more complicated, and there might be good medication for that. But your chickens in the picture look very healthy! I think that is the best prevention for infection, a healthy start. I hope your guy heals well, and you have the same good luck I had.

 

[Kim_NC]

Thanks for sharing, Keri. The results with your RIR are good to know.

How inspiring, 6chickens! You're right - good health initially is important to any chicken recovering from unexpected injury or illness. Ya know, DH & I said that yesterday - "At least he was in excellent health before this happened. Hopefully, it'll help with recovery." And Thanks for your pics. You gave me an idea. I'm going to take pics of Hermes in his damaged state and post them along with progress pics. Maybe that'll help someone else, somewhere along the line.

Well, DH was back from town just before lunch time - and TSC had the Terramyacin opthalmic ointment.

We gave Hermes fresh medicated water and a couple more bites of liver before treating his eyes. (I was concerned that if we cleaned his eyes first that he would feel "sapped of energy" and not want to eat or drink.) Also, I stuck pieces of grit and gamebird crumbles (high protein) to the liver pieces. I'm just trying to feed him high protein, but also wanted to be sure he's maintaining grit in his crop.

Then we cleaned his eyes with the saline solution, applied the Terramyacin ointment to his eyes, and a general triple-antibiotic to his earlobes and cheek area. He was getting 'tired' by then. But finally, we gave him a couple more droppers of medicated water which he seemed happy to get. Then we left him to rest. He laid down.

I went back 30 minutes later to check on him. He was standing and had his left (best) eye open to a slit again.

We'll see. Next trip out for care, I'll get some pics. And he'll be getting more prayers.

Many Thanks again...Kim

edit: typo

 

[Kim_NC]

We had unexpected stuff come up this afternoon, and were later getting back to the coops than we liked...LOL, and in a deluge of rain to boot.

But Hermes was looking slightly improved. He was holding the left (best) eye open when we returned. And the swollen, bad right eye seemed to be oozing less. Hard to see in the dimly lit coop, but at least we could see well enough to say it wasn't oozing as much as before.

We had left gamebird crumbles and water for him earlier. It appeared maybe he had pecked at the crumbles....and he ate more small pieces of cooked liver when I put it in his beak (like this morning). He also gulped water again from a dropper, even seemed anxious to get all he could of that.

Urgh! But I forgot to take the camera! It was probably too dark for decent pics anyway. I'll get pics in the morning.

He's not near out of the woods yet, but I feel better about his prognosis thus far.

Edit: In the morning we'll clean his eyes with saline solution again, and treat with the Terramycin ointment.