Injured Rooster

[Fleabuskitty]

Today I went out to check on the chickens and my production RIR rooster Tallulah was limping. I picked him up and noticed a smell similar to how my golden sebright rooster smelled when he had a respiratory infection. The flock was recently NPIP certified and Tallulah was one of the birds they tested so I checked under his wing to see if maybe where the took the blood from was infected. Sure enough, there was an infection. But it was not his wing, it was a new injury on the part of his thigh that is covered by his wing. My mother's 'significant other' was at our house and he helped when Ares had a respiratory infection and knows more about animal injuries than I do so I had him look at it. We ended up taking Tallulah to the neighbor's house. My neighbor raises goats and has experience with animal injuries. He said that the wound was a couple days old. I have no idea how I did not notice it, I check on the chickens three or four times a day and sometimes just sit and watch them, but I also know that birds tend to hide injuries/sickness very well as I have had multiple cage birds just suddenly die in the past.
Anyway, my neighbor removed the dead tissue, put a huge amount of peroxide on the injury, and then covered it in blue kote. He said that maybe Tallulah got spurred by my other rooster, but Peanut the buff brahma only had rounded 'nub' spurs that couldn't do that. I know the golden sebright could and would do that, but he is never in contact with the other roosters and lives in his own coop with his own flock. The only thing I could think of was maybe the hens pecked at him, but that seems unlikely because of the location of the wound, or maybe he was attacked by a hawk.
Anyway, they said Tallulah has a 50/50 chance of survival and that we should be able to tell if he'll make it or not by tomorrow. In the meantime he is drinking terramycin and is isolated from the rest of the flock. If he looks like he is getting worse tomorrow we're going to go ahead and cull him because I don't want him to suffer. He's a great rooster, though. He is very protective of his ladies but never argues with Peanut. I'm not worried about not having enough roosters or anything, I have Peanut with the hens right now and an EE cockerel in the grow-out pen, and multiple neighbors have offered me some nice roosters, though none of them will ever be as good as Tallulah. I got him from the "pullets" bin at TSC and didn't even suspect he was a cockerel until he actually started crowing, and even then I thought it was Peanut, who we got knowing he was a cockerel. Tallulah crows all day and attacks strangers, so most of my friends/family won't mind if he's gone. I'm just glad I decided to set 6 eggs from his hens with the quail eggs, that way if he doesn't make it I'll have plenty of his chicks...
I really wish I knew how he got hurt, though, so I can make sure it doesn't happen to any other chickens. I'm probably going to end up checking all of the other free-range chickens for injuries every day now

 

[pgpoultry]

You will never prevent chickens hurting themselves and others. They scrap, peck and try to squeeze themselves into inappropriate places even in the most orderly of flocks, and there are always some predators that find their way into coops like Fort Knox..He does sound a rather 'feisty' thing though.

It sounds as though you and your neighbour are doing everything appropriate and peroxide will help flush out all dead tissue.

Chickens are tough and I have had a rooster survive a fox attack with huge gashes in his back which i stitched myself as we are miles from a vet.

Good Luck.

 

[Fleabuskitty]

He ate a mixture of chicken feed and terramycin water tonight and seemed a little better.
That's amazing that your rooster survived being attacked by a fox! That sounds a lot worse than Tallulah's small-ish puncture wound. I could never stitch up an animal on my own. Whenever anything gets hurt I'm always afraid I'll make it worse. I guess it's pretty convenient having multiple people near us that can help with stuff like that.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

I would give him a good chance to recover (Maby a week) before you know.

It sounds like you acted well good luck

 

[Fleabuskitty]

<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3 :

I would give him a good chance to recover (Maby a week) before you know.

It sounds like you acted well good luck

You mean for him to fully recover or to tell if he will make it or not? I was told that we will know pretty soon if he'll be okay or not, but the only diseases/injuries I've ever dealt with was a respiratory infection so I don't know...​

 

[pgpoultry]

It's a good sign that he is eating/drinking. Keep him warm and indoors, with constant access to food water.

Also a good idea to give painkillers......don't know what dose of aspirin is standard in USA.....but one 300mg tablet to 1.2 litres of water is about right (don't be too worried about getting the dose spot on)....can go into the same water as the antibiotic.

I syringed aspirin into my torn up rooster and then stitched him with blue embroidery silk in all the areas where the skin would come together. I took out the stitches after a week.....he had healed very well. I used iodine solution to clean his wounds,so his feathers were a bit stained. He went on to make a complete recovery and fathered a nice little number of chicks.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

To tell if he will make it or not. I had a chicken go into some kind of shock, and she looked like she would die but pulled threw in the long run.

Thats just what I would do if they were mine. I'am still learning myself here.

 

[Tripp16]

You will no within a few days if he is going to make it. If he stops eating/ drinking (you probably know this) but he probably wont make it.

Let us know how he is doing.

 

[Fleabuskitty]

He's been eating plenty and crowing all day, so hopefully that's a good sign!

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]