Isaac Almost Killed Another SonToday...Deacon Has Recovered, and..... (update 11/30)

[drumstick diva]

Poor Deacon - small improvements are good reasons to hope for more

 

[speckledhen]

It's upsetting to see him so unsteady on his feet. He's so full of life, so friendly and cheerful. I hope that this improvement will continue and he'll be back to his normal self in a few weeks time.

 

[Dan K]

Sorry about you chickens not getting along!

 

[speckledhen]

I am using a n electric horse fence zapper around my coop and run, I have it turned all the way up. The bottom wire is 3/4" off the ground and the top is at 6'. I have 7 lines running horizontal between them and connected to the chicken mesh wire. It's putting out enough A/C juice to zap a 1100 lb horse, so any predators that will touch it, well you can guess...

Um, Dan, are you sure you meant to post this on this thread?

 

[Dan K]

Oops, sorry! I meant it for the predator problems!

 

[speckledhen]

Ok, makes more sense. Kept trying to see what you might mean by that in regard to my rooster's injury and couldn't make it fit, LOL. I see you changed your post. Thanks. Welcome to BYC!

 

[speckledhen]

Deacon seems to be improving more. We let him be out more today and he was in his dusting hole under the deck, which he loves, very happy to see it again. He flirted with the old ladies, fussed at the fence with Atlas and didn't fall down once, though he did stagger some. He is still doing the odd head movements. Not sure if you can see them in the these videos-his head tilts up and to the right quite a bit and his comb points are curled over some (they are usually straight up). I hope that within a couple of weeks, he'll be able to free range at the same time as Rex's crew. Right now, he would be unable to get away from his brother or his dad and I'm afraid a fight would kill him.

These are three very short clips I uploaded to youtube (never did that before).

 

[drumstick diva]

Please don't put Deacon back in with Isaac - he wasn't able to get away from him when he was in good shape. He's fair game for any rooster.

 

[speckledhen]

Honey, that's already been decided, trust me. He isn't going back in with Isaac, period. After we think he's sufficiently recovered, he'll free range at the same time as Rex's crew when he has plenty of room to escape from an attack from his brother, as long as we feel he has recovered enough to do that, but he won't be housed with him, either. Not sure what to do other than let him spend his nights in a bachelor cage. I hope it doesn't change his easygoing temperament to do that to him.



ETA: I was dreading this would happen. On one hand, Deacon seems to be improving quite a bit, though he doesn't always stand his normal tall self, but rather, with his neck a bit hunched in from time to time. It probably hurts some. He is enough better that he was fighting at the fence with Atlas, I mean full on jumping up, hitting the fence and landing back on his feet. So, me thinking that was too much activity for him at this point, not wanting him to push himself, walked over to stop it. I casually sort of waved my left leg toward him to push him back, at the same time, saying, "Deacon, , Atlas, quit it" and Deacon turned to face me, then jumped at me and hit me in the left knee. He's never flogged me before. So, I grabbed him up and took him to the dust hole near the house, thinking to distract him, but he wasn't having any of it and went right back to fighting with Atlas, landing him another incarceration. I hope I don't have another Dutch situation on my hands, if any of you remember that one. Sigh. Catch-22 here: Separate him for his own good and have a bad behavior change or let him be and risk him taking steps backward in his recovery, maybe even ending up dead because of it. Could be he was just overcharged from being locked up for a week so I'll give him that one. But it cannot continue.

 

[speckledhen]

Deacon will be the death of me yet. I asked DH to let him out of the cage, but to put Atlas inside so they could not fight through the fence. Well, I'm working on my website in the house, an all day tedious affair, and DH yells for me that he needs help. He is standing at the door, Deacon in his arms with Deacon's feet, wattles and comb pouring blood. DH forgot to put something in front of the coop door, which is only chicken wire-you have to walk into solid double doors into the front storage area then to the door into the actual coop, so it's chicken wire, nothing more needed.

Deacon had gone inside the storage area and was jumping at Atlas through this chicken wire and turned his feet into hamburger, literally has shredded them! He was still fighting when DH snatched him up, pools of blood and splatters all over the door and on the floor. If a cop saw that, he'd draw his gun and start looking for the gunshot or stabbing victim. It was horrible. Atlas, on the other hand, was not quite as beaten up, just a few scraped on the feet and comb. In fact, when he snatched Deacon up, Atlas was just standing there at the door, staring at him. Deacon is an idiot. From the injuries, seems that Atlas has better sense, or at least, he got tired of the stupidity and quit. So, now I have to hope Deacon the Goober doesn't end up killing himself with infection. STUPID ROOSTER! At least, he seems to have recovered somewhat from his daddy-induced injury or he couldn't have hurt himself so badly today.

Can I just say