Yes. I hung onto my first sick chicken too long and felt guilty afterward. She had a second suprelorin implant and died a few days later. I should have had her euthanized instead of having the implant done. But this thread is about Brownie.
In this case, I thought Brownie seemed to be showing improvement and deserves a chance since Kailey is willing to tend to him. I hope he’s doing OK and hope to hear from Kailey when she gets home.
I agree with feeding a balanced chicken feed to help repair Brownie's tissues. If he can eat it in a slurry, that's fine too as he's getting water with his feed. Or the products mentioned earlier so he is getting everything he needs. And definitely, he needs protein.
It can definitely be a very tough call on when to call it and decide to put a chicken down. It's an agonizing decision. But I will note that this rooster is not sick, but injured from a known attack. He is very possibly suffering from inflammation which may be impinging nerves and/or he could be suffering from possible nerve injury. This would explain why he is unable to move parts. I'm surprised he's being moved as much as it appears and that slings and movement has been suggested. In my opinion, he should be left to rest and repair any damage to his tissues. Moving him around that much may delay healing. Hopefully, he's not suffering a broken/cracked bone or vertebrae that is pressing on something.
Muscles won't work if the nerves to those muscles are injured. Messages to move will not be making it successfully from the brain to those muscles. Until those pathways (the nerves) are repairing themselves there won't be any movement of the muscles. Feeding times would likely be enough movement for him to keep nerves from being impinged.
Nerves take time to heal. I deal with nerve issues in my back. If I do something minor to aggravate the inflammation in my back where I have injury, I will lose the use of those toes and it will take 2-3 weeks to get feeling back in my foot and for me to be able to use those toes again. When the initial injury occurred and it took an entire month before I could sit down on a chair and 4 months before I could ride and sit up in a vehicle, I can tell you I wouldn't have wanted anyone moving me.
My rooster was bitten several times on his neck and it took that amount of time for him to be able to regain nerve and muscle function. "IF" your rooster hasn't been injured as badly, he should regain nerve and muscle function faster than mine if given a chance to heal.
Here is good information on nerve damage.
http://nerve.wustl.edu/NerveInjury.pdf
