HELP! Injured Rooster

[OHChick]

yesterday we did not let my chickens out because we got nearly 2 ft of snow. so today, when my DH was down at the barn he noticed Elvis the roo was bloody. he went into the coop and there is blood sprayed on the windows and walls and feeder. it looks like the girls were pecking his comb really good and its nearly detached at the back part of the comb.

we brought him up to the house in a big dog cage, put him in with food, water, heater and put blue kote on his comb but he has not really moved in 2 hours. he is just standing there.

is there anything else we can do for him? anyone had experience with this?

my best guess is that one of the tips of his comb where he'd had a bit of frostbite busted open and the girls got the smell of blood and just went to town.

he's a gorgeous roo (his photo is my avatar), he is my only one, i hope he is going to recover.

advice is appreciated.

edited to add: he is not yet a year old, he is 10 mos old. he is a NH Red and is about 8 lbs.

 

[CUDA]

Big combs get damaged real easy, I doubt your hens did it. He probably did it himself. From where you live, I would just dub it myself. You can find out information on that HERE . I dub all my fowl to prevent frostbite. If not, don't worry about it, it will heal fine on it's own. I wouldn't recommend bringing him in the house, the temp change is not good for them. If you want to do something to help him heal, just drop some broad spectrum in the water for them. Good luck!

 

[Kitsune]

I don't think chickens respond to the smell of blood, sight of it possibly - I think this however could be a pecking order fight that got out of hand - probably your head hen took offense to something and went on the attack, often lower ranking hens will pitch in once the lead hen starts.

If they're not used to being penned up then you'll probably see things improve when you let them out - if you can't let them out then I'd either keep an eye on them or seperate the roo - make sure he's still in sight of the hens though or there might be more battles when you put him back in.

 

[d.k]

*I imagine cleaning up a wounded roo to be a 2 person job. Wrap him up, & use cotton swabs to clean the cut well w/ anti-bac soap & water, dab on peroxide & neosporin. Keep him warm and make sure he's drinking water. Add antibiotics to the water. Watch for shock and make sure he's eating. Keep an eye on the circulation of his comb and coddle him some, but try to keep him moving a little.

 

[Kitsune]

Are there any other injuries you can see other than the comb?

If it's just the comb the listlessness is probably due to blood loss so he should recover with no problems in a few days (though you will have to keep him away from the hens)

 

[Equest94]

The same thing happened to us a little while back. We were forced to leave our flock in due to bad weather conditions and the following day, one our our roos turned up all bloody, the coop walls and windows were dripping (looked like a still scene from a Carrie movie, lol).

We figured they started fighting due t being crammed up... as a solution we turned the coop (so that the wind can't blow into it) and just leave the door to their run open everyday regardless of the weather ad close them in every night. We figured if it's too cold, they just won't go outside... we never had a problem since.

Good luck. I hope he'll get better.

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

put him in a cage or pen seperate from all the other chickens. I go through bloody birds all the time and have experience with curing a bloody hurt chicken. I'm going through it currently because I just got a roo from my neighbors today that got beaten up bad by one of their roos.

He's in a cage until he heals. If he's lucky I'll even let him free range during the days.

 

[rooster-red]

Its better to use saline solution to clean the wound rather than peroxide.
Peroxide can actually kill living tissue.

 

[OHChick]

Quote:
all that i can see is the comb. he's pretty low key (so he must not be feeling well), and he let me cover it with blue kote really well. i could not spray the tips of the comb that are also bloody b/c i didn't want to get it into his eyes.

he is still in the dog cage in the garage and is just hanging out. i did get him to eat something and a bit ago i put the terramycin in his water and he drank like he was dying of thirst. the water has been in there all day, so i guess he just didn't see it before.

thanks for all the tips, i will post a progress report tomorrow.

 

[OHChick]

Quote:
thanks, yeah 99.99% of the time we keep their hatch open, their door is on a timer, so the inner door opens and they can let themselves out. we only close the outer door if its going to be really bad, which it was yesterday. we had drifts at the barn that were over my head and i'm 5'6".

and your description of the Carrie scene...ditto that! my husband had described the coop to me, but i had to go see for myself, kind of wish that i had not. it freaks me out, i may hire someone to come scrub it down for me.