Help! Young rooster injured, only one nostril, one side of face ripped up

[meghanjohanna]

Help! My 6 month old australorp/ EE cross rooster was beat up by another rooster. His beard and muffs were ripped out and one side of his face is really bad. It looks like his lower eyelid is ripped and has swollen shut, but the eye looks intact. My biggest concern is his right nostril which I can't even find because his face is shredded right where the opening would be. I tried probing with a q-tip but it started bleeding so stopped.he is breathing fine out of the other nostril when awake but opens his mouth to breath when sleeping. I'm also afraid he aspirated his own blood, it was running down his face onto his come. The bleeding has stopped so I am just letting him rest for now.. Any advice or information would be appreciated!!!!

 

[Judy]

He needs to be separated and probably should be kept in your house until he is pretty much healed, maybe in a spare bathtub? I would clean the wounds, gently, with mild soap and water or a mild solution of Betadine or peroside, then put Neosporin ointment on the wounds. After that I would just reapply the neosporin as it seems to be needed.

They heal up some pretty extensive wounds with some ordinary common sense care, if they will or can eat and drink. That's the critical thing. The separation is to prevent the others from attacking the wounds, which would almost certainly happen. The chicken will be "in shock" for a while and thus might not eat or drink for a day or so, or at least several hours.

It doesn't matter that much which product you use, except for one thing: never use a drug or cleaning agent that has a "caine"drug in it, such as cetacaine or benzocaine. Generally, don't try to dress chicken wounds.

Some people would no doubt give a systemic antibiotic.

You can give aspirin for pain if you wish. Don't give Tylenol or another NDSAID such as Motrin or Aleve. Dosage is approximately 25 mg per pound of chicken's body weight each day (A standard baby Aspirin is 80 mg, and a standard adult Aspirin pill is 325 mg). Warning: aspirin thins the blood and should not be used if internal bleeding is suspected or in cases where a wound will not stop bleeding. They will probably eat baby aspirin for you, or you can break one into a bit of yogurt or moistened food.

Good luck!

 

[meghanjohanna]

Thank you for responding. I've got him in the house in an extra large dog crate. He drank a little and tried to eat some but seemed frustrated doing so with one eye, and gave up on eating. I put the antibiotic ointment on, but his eyelid is already swollen shut. He is sleeping on my lap now. His breathing worries me, but he seems comfortable.

 

[Judy]

Sounds hopeful.

You might try some moistened food, or something soft like scrambled egg or even yogurt. You could even tube feed her if you want to go that route -- directions in our learning center. It's definitely encouraging that she would drink. Maybe the breathing will turn out to be upper respiratory from the local damage. Sure hope it works out for you!