Help! My Roo's face and comb badly injured!

[Chicken D's mom]

Went out to the coop this morning and found blood everywhere, and Chicken D, my beautiful rooster's face and comb covered in blood.

I have 2 roosters, a buff Plymouth barred rock/cochin (the injured and also very large) and an Easter egger (the prime suspect and much smaller) and 2 bantam hens.

The Egger has blood all over his feathers around his neck but no injuries, and no blood on his face or beak.
I think the Egger attacked Chicken D, but they have always gotten along, and no problems EVER.
The girls have no blood and are probably innocent bystanders.

Is this a dominance issue between roosters? I put Chicken D in the garage, and his injuries look pretty severe to me, but he is
walking around, flapping his wings, eating and drinking fine. He does have runny poo.

I rinsed Chicken D's wounds with diluted peroxide and put neosporin on. Could someone possibly tell me if I need to take him to
the vet based on the picture.
Any help and advice would be appriciated.

 

[msdoolittle]

I think you are doing everything you should. Looks like you have him under a heat lamp, which I would use on him for a few days until he is back to acting normal and the wounds start healing. Don't use any more peroxide though, as it destroys/harms cells that are trying to heal the wounds. Unless he has eye damage (in which he would need to be put on an ophthalmic drop or ointment), he will probably be A-ok in a few days, but just keep a close eye on him. Make sure he's eating, drinking, and pooping OK. Stress will cause birds to have diarrhea, so I would just watch that to make sure it firms up pretty quickly. I'd keep doing what you're doing, keeping the wounds clean and medicate with the antibiotic salve.

Poor Chicken D, looks like he'll have to find separate living quarters. And is that poo on his beak/wattle? Talk about adding insult to injury!

 

[Pumpkinpup]

You have done the proper thing. Time will heal him.
Sounds like definate dominance thing to me. Perhaps you may need to build a seperate coop and put one pair in each.

 

[Chicken D's mom]

...lol...no, that's just pine shavings or scratch grains stuck in the neosporin!
Thank you for responding....I've been worried all day.
I do have a heat lamp on him. It's very cold here.

Actually, the Egger is getting a new home with a friend of mine. He is really aggressive with my bantam hens. So I think once Chicken D heals, I'll be able to put him back in with the girls as long as the egger is gone, peace should be restored.

Also, his eye was completely closed most of the day, but he's opening it now. The other eye is a little red but okay.

 

[seminolewind]

I think you did the best thing. I am a firm believer in Peroxide. We clean wounds on babies at work with 1/2 hydrogen peroxide and 1/2 water. Then rinse it off with [sterile] water, pat dry, then apply an ointment.

 

[msdoolittle]

Lol, well at least he didn't get poo-ed upon! I had to rehome my beautiful (see my avatar) roo when he began attacking my kids. Pretty only goes so far, lol.

Also, sorry, I'll clarify: Peroxide is good for initial cleansing of wounds...I use it sometimes when there is lots of debris in a wound. Works really well for flushing the junk out.

Bet he'll be back to normal in no time!

Lol, I was checking out my avatar...OK, he wasn't as pretty then as he was when he left! He was just a gangly teen then.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
I think the roo in your avatar is beautiful!