- Apr 29, 2014
- 4
- 1
- 11
This is my first time on this website and I'm glad to be here! Here's the story of "Hot Wheels". My boyfriend and his family have always raised chickens. My boyfriends brother got some hens last year and they came with some roosters. He didn't want the roosters and knew they sent them pretty much as packing peanuts to keep the hens warm. As the roosters grew suddenly there became issues with their feet. They'd turn black and fall off and eventually the roosters would die. The company told him they were mites and that all the chickens would die. However the hens were fine and their feet were beautiful. One rooster survived his feet turning black, falling off, leaving nothing but bloody nubs and no real way for him to get around. We all felt terrible and weren't too sure what to do. We went down to the barn to check on the chickens and found the hens knocked over a pallet and had pinned the poor rooster under it. We quickly picked it up and got him situated and I began to feel empathetic for the rooster, he just couldn't catch a break. So my boyfriend and I did some research and found out that a lot of companies (terrible ones) hyper breed the roosters so they can literally use them as packing peanuts. This creates deformities, death, disease, basically animal cruelty. We found out that a common cause of hyper breeding is poor blood circulation. Poor circulation leads to frostbite in bitter cold winters and eventually necrosis of the foot or whole leg, falling off, then death. But this guy survived. So we decided to take some action! He looked tired, barely any color to his comb, and he wasn't fighting us when we picked him up, barely talking. We wrapped him up in a blanket and soaked his nubs in water and soap to wash the blood and poop. He was shaking biting the blanket and even peed himself. We put neosporin on his nubs and bandaged him up and put him in a nice comfy cage with fresh food and water. He sat with my boyfriend and they each took turns drinking water, with my boyfriend mimicking his hands as being a beak and we let him rest by the wood stove.
the next morning he was up and talking and we began the process again of changing his bandages. He already seemed to be used to us handling him as if he knew that we were helping him and didn't struggle fight or put up any fuss. His wounds already looked like they had been healing for several days and it had only been 1 day! We are continuing to keep him separate from the hens till he's all healed up and doing well!
Yes we put socks on him to keep his nubs warm! The color in his comb could still use some improvement....
There we go! He's looking bright and healthy and his nubs are all bandaged up looking just adorable! He's very social!
relaxing in the sun and on some grass actually inspired him to give his nubs a shot and walk around without the aid of his wings for balance.
the next morning he was up and talking and we began the process again of changing his bandages. He already seemed to be used to us handling him as if he knew that we were helping him and didn't struggle fight or put up any fuss. His wounds already looked like they had been healing for several days and it had only been 1 day! We are continuing to keep him separate from the hens till he's all healed up and doing well!
Yes we put socks on him to keep his nubs warm! The color in his comb could still use some improvement....
There we go! He's looking bright and healthy and his nubs are all bandaged up looking just adorable! He's very social!
relaxing in the sun and on some grass actually inspired him to give his nubs a shot and walk around without the aid of his wings for balance.
