Raven attack- eye injury- help!

[One Chick Two]

Remember I'd mentioned that Rhett's eye kept gluing shut?

Well, on Xmas eve, we had him in the house, so we could gently and slowly attempt to uncrust the hard "glue" lodged between the outer lids with warm, sterile water and a q-tip just so the area could drain if needed. What looked like a mostly dried up scab finally came out, but it was still attached. DH believes this may be what was left of the poor boy's eye. : ( He's been so incredibly good about the whole affair- he sits with us for a few hours when it turns dark, and just looks around while we tend to him.

We've had him caged outside in the run during the day, but we notice that he is pretty depressed. He rarely crows, eats little. He perks up a bit when he sees the ladies. We've let him out about 5 minutes of time (intensely supervised) at a time, but within those few minutes, he chased the other cockerels (He used to be number one cockerel. He is very large, close to 10 lbs.) tried to mount a hen and fell off, then ran into the henhouse and hid in the corner by himself. (At this point, he went back into the cage.) When he pecks at food, he has to peck around a bit to find it.

How long do these eye injuries typically last before he can go back in with the flock? Will the other birds pick on this defect or ignore it? In the photo below is the wound (possibly eye) thing that is still attached for now. It has shrunk alot overnight. Whatever it is, it was pretty torn up. I think that it will likely fall away soon. I'm afraid to remove it to tear him any more than he already is.

!Many thanks for your input.

 

[One Chick Two]

Yesterday, Rhett finally opened his injured eye so we could actually see in there, and hurray! There actually still IS an eye in there!



As you can see, Rhett has healed tremendously in a very short time! All of the cuts to his face and comb are nearly fully healed.

However, his damaged eye does seem to have been ruptured, but at least it is still there. The piece that had finally come out may have been tissue, muscle, cornea? The iris is opened only a small amount, and has a sideways oval shape. It does not respond to light to this time, and he does appear to be blinded in this eye at least at this time. So his eye may ultimately be like Wayne&Kim1963's hen and just not responsive. Thank you all so much for your help. I will post again later to let you know if his sight eventually came back.

Here is his good eye- isn't it amazing how quickly they heal?

 

[Fancychooklady]

They are very resilient. Your Rhett was even smart enough to 'play dead ' when he was injured. My ' chicken little ' was taken by a hawk and dropped from a dizzy height. She lost her eye, but that hasn't slowed her down.

I'm glad that Rhett has recovered.

 

[One Chick Two]

Thanks for sharing Chicken Little's touching story. Read and marveled at how your daughter had courageously raced to save her from the hawk. And now, she's a happy little Mama. The photo with her young chicks so close to her side says it all. Just an amazing triumph!

Everyday, I'm awed by the resiliency and resourcefulness of chickens. Chickens can be funny, but also truly amazing at times. Rhett still has a ways to go to be fully functioning. In the photo by the garbage can, he stood there for 15 minutes with his beak pressed against the metal. Go figure what he was thinking right then. lol

I believe Rhett is going to eventually get through this... but he does have some obstacles. Our large flock (80) does supervised freeranging (as you can see, even so, some predator will still take a chance when our back is turned or one bird is further out from the others.) plus, we have 16 other energetic roos and cockerels for him to contend with, and he used to be number one cockerel. Surprisingly, his girls have been very loyal to him and sat on the cage or around the cage while he was in there. We now have him in with the flock (supervised) with occasional time outs for food, water and rest breaks. He's been sleeping alot through this.