How bad does it get?

[kinnip]

My alpha roo seems to have lost his place in the pecking order. He got his butt thoroughly kicked by a younger, larger male. Now the girls appear to be picking on him. Does this kind of thing resolve itself without loss of life or limb? I don't want to bring him inside, but I have no where outside to isolate him without him freezing to death tonight.

 

[rooster-red]

It could resolve itself in a couple of weeks. Either he will assume his new role in the flock and be submissive to the younger roo, or...

The tables could also turn again and the older alpha challange the younger, he could take the alpha title back.

My alpha roo has been challanged many times by younger, even bigger roo's many times. He lost a battle with one and sulked for a few hours, then challaged and won his position back.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Sometimes, chickens kill each other. If you're lucky, they resolve their issues without it going that far, but it happens. If it starts getting too bad, you need to take the victim out, for their own protection. Once chickens draw blood, it goes downhill very fast.

Is he showing any damage or just looking harassed at this point?

 

[Guitartists]

Two of my young upstarts have been going at each other. Mostly it was just jumping and dancing.... but they did bloody each other (combs and wattles) pretty decent the one day. They sorted it out. The one that took the worst of it backs down now.

 

[kinnip]

He has a pretty nasty gash on one of his wattles and a bloody toenail. He's soaking up some Blu-Kote right now. There's one hen who insists on picking at his wattle and he lets her. I'm hoping the Blu-Kote will stop it, but I think he's going to end up separated, at least during the day.

 

[kinnip]

Since my last post, things have degenerated. Apparently the Blu-Kote encouraged more picking. He now has a horrible tear on his wattles. Yay me! Way to go with the wishful thinking! I've flushed it with saline, sprayed it with iodine and coated it with styptic powder. Carmine is resting in a cage in the living room. I hope the BF doesn't freak out, but we'll save that for another post. My main problem now is stopping the bleeding. The styptic doesn't seem to be working. I know it's a high blood flow area, but when do I start really worrying about blood loss? He's up and alert right now and seems to be planning his escape, but we're both covered in blood.

 

[JennsPeeps]

Would he let you hold him & allow you to put pressure on it?

Drubbing is when wattles/combs are removed, so he'll be OK.

 

[Ol'FashionHen]

, I don't know.

 

[mrsengeseth]

If styptic won't work, I have had wonderful success using regular old pantry all purpose flour. Worked on a dogs mis cut toenail, a cockatiels torn toenail, and on a chick who got his wing tip caught in a hinge of a kennel.

 

[kinnip]

Well the blood pie is a go. If nothing els, the flour helped me see better what I'm dealing with. It's like the wattle has been filleted in a semi-circle about 1/2" in diameter. It's not as big a wound as I thought. Whew! All I can do is wait and kick myself for not nipping this in the bud. I'd like to go pick up some penicillin, but I also have a goat on the loose. Nope, I don't think today is the day I'll stop drinking.