My 3 month old Ameraucana rooster, Stripe, was attacked by our foster puppies yesterday. I read some of the other posts but I am so new to chickens that I am seeking some suggestions for this particular horrid injury on his rear and wing. Most of his tail feathers were tore out, and a couple of small pieces of flesh were hanging off some of his nearly detached feathers ... it's really raw and painful looking. Feathers are missing from his back, it looks sore as well. His right wing looks badly injured, one layer of skin and feathers gone, almost looks like I can see cartilage or long looking bone between his wing and back, but there's still a layer of skin covering it. His other wing has a small hole in it near that fragile looking area between the body and wing. His wings don't look dislocated, however. He didn't bleed all that much either, which I am thankful for. When I found him last night, he was laying on his side and looked dead. But when I brought him in the house he stood up fine and let me take care of him. I flushed out all the wounded areas with wound wash saline, using nearly the whole can, then applied antibiotic/pain relief ointment to all exposed area after removing the already detached feathers from his skin. Thank God, his head and neck look fine. I put him in a pet kennel last night. He's popped three times, and it looks normal. He drank a little water and has pecked at some feed a few times that I gave him this morning. He stood up a few times and was cooing a bit, which was nice. We too, are having a problem finding a vet that takes roosters that isn't a gazillion miles away, but if I can take care of him at home and treat him with antibiotics that would be great. Meanwhile, here are some questions that maybe someone that who has been through this can answer ... which I am extremely grateful for: --Should I clean the would with saline tonight and reapply the antibiotic ointment? Or is there a different course of action I should take? --With a wing injury, how much mobility should I allow him? --How much Gatorade should I dilute with water? Do I add sugar to that as well? --Does he need a cone for his head so he doesn't pick at his butt? I read on here that someone made one for their bird. --He never liked yogurt, is there any other recommendation for yummy, safe human food? Today I plan on going to the feed store for some antibiotic and blue cote spray. I figure that I will clean him up tonight when he's nice and mellow. I am sure some folks from the feed store will have suggestions as well. Thank you already, Babsie
This is a pretty late reply to your post, and I hope your little guy is still alive. I think the pain reliever in the antibiotic ointment is bad for birds. I always use the kind without it. In fact, it's pretty much the only thing I use. I just clean them up as well as I can, put antibiotic ointment on wounds, and let nature take it's course. Surprisingly, I've had birds survive some terrible wounds with this minimal amount of care that I give. I'm not very medically inclined! I do reapply the ointment several times per day, and I keep the bird inside the house for the duration of the recovery period. Much to my husband's eternal displeasure. As far as food and water go, I am not a fan of sugar in the water. Ever. Just clean fresh water is the way to go. They really like it if you add some water to their food to make a mash. Also, cooked oatmeal seems to go over very well. Good luck with him.
Just keep him warm and fresh water and feed.I Highly recommend spray antibiotic for wound's at least for 5 day's.If he has deep wound's it will cause him less trauma other than messing with the wound putting ointment on them.Just make sure you cover his eye's and face when spraying it.Then once the wound's heal you can aplly ointment and it soften's the scar tissue up and help's it heal.I wouldn't put any thing other than the normal food either.Bring it inside and make sure if he has open wound's the flie's dont get on it.At 3 month's old he should do fine with basic care.Don't overdress the wound let it heal naturaly.The wing may do ok I hope.Wing's are crazy traying to fix.I survived a pretty badly chewed duck by dog once with backbone sticking out so.Just give it food water and warm and keep it clean once a day.Let us know how it does.
Hi thanks everyone for the great suggestions. Stripe is doing great. Everything looks like it's healing and he's drinking and eating really well. He's in the house with me in a crate, and even crows from time to time, which makes me very happy. His left wing looks nearly healed, but his right wing still looks like it has a ways to go. His rear looks better, just a few areas have some torn skin from the dog tearing out his feathers. But it looks to be healing well. I thought he was dead when I found him, so I am just really grateful the little guy is doing so incredibly well. He's my miracle roo! I never thought that I would own chickens; now I've got total chicken fever. I'll have to figure out the photo thing on here, and will post one of Stripe. ~Babsie
