Rooster appears blind after fight can this be temporary?

[Kris5902]

My 4 year old Rooster doesn’t tolerate people in his run so I had let him out to free range with his ladies while I worked on his tarp. I thought I had all the other boys fully confined as he doesn’t play well with other Roosters either. I got a time sensitive phone call and had to leave the yard for about 5 minutes. Sausage (one of this years oldest cockerels) got out and when I came back my older Rooster was nowhere to be seen. He was hiding in the back corner of his run, broken spur, bloodied comb. And fully crestfallen. I treated the obvious injuries, got him some feed and water and left him alone to recover. He didn’t show any signs of improvement and I pulled him out and offered more feed by hand (normally he would bite the heck out of me or attack my face for something like this) before bedtime.

He seems to be blinded. I put him up on the roost with his girls last night and he wouldn’t come down in the morning so I lifted him out. He still seems blind. Both eyes are uninjured, not swollen. Could this be temporary, or something he might recover from? He’s a favorite, but if he isn’t going to have a quality life going forward we will help him along for passing. Thanks for any advice.

I have six free range Roosters in my large flock without much issue… however I have two I keep in separate runs with their own flocks for breeding and attitude issues. He was one of these two.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Poor guy!
Can you post photos of his eyes and injuries?

I'd work on hydration, then get him eating. Electrolytes or a little warmed sugar water, then a wet mash of feed. If he's unable to see and you need to hand feed right now, then you can Torpedo feed him, this may be easiest, but he needs fully hydrated first.

Once you get him hydrated and eating a little, then I'd also start vitamin therapy. Vitamin E and B Complex would be good. For a full grown rooster, I'd give 400IU Vitamin E and 1/2 tablet B-Complex.

Hard to know what's happened with him, if he was beaten badly, then he may have suffered neurological damage and the vision may come back. He may be in severe shock and depression.
I'd give him focused supportive care for a few days to see if there's any improvement, this will give you time to determine if you need to continue on or to let him go.


This is Torpedo Feeding, the video is good, but she's also added photos in post#5, basically is little balls of wet feed, but might be easier than him having to peck at dry feed or even mash.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...eeding-what-is-it-and-when-to-use-it.1532744/

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thread has been locked. Thank you to those who participated in a positive manner.

oldhenlikesdogs

 

[coach723]

You've been given good advice. Just wanted to add that I've had a couple of cockerels/roos get badly beaten up (no sight loss) and sometimes they can get VERY depressed. That part can take a fair amount of time for them to get over/accept. I have an older roo that I wasn't sure was going to recover from the depression when he got knocked out of #1 position, he was just gobsmacked. He's still with us, but is a much changed bird ever since, it's been about 3 years since he was dethroned. For any kind of injury, particularly neurological, I think it's pretty hard to give time predictions. It's kind of up to you, how much you are willing and able to do, to give it time to see how he does.

 

[Kris5902]

Not butthurtt

Your rooster sounds butthurt, if he were mine I would just give him time

he is definitely visually impaired now. I have a lot of Roosters, just processed the 12 less lucky ones from this year

Please excuse the mess, I’ve had my hands full building our house, and taking care of all the livestock. This is his general posture.

 

[theoldchick]

This guy is in a lot of pain and needs something for pain management. I've used valium and metacam on roosters like this and they have responded very well. Some vets will use manitol if brain swelling is suspected. These medications are rx only by a veterinarian. You can try 81 mg aspirin twice daily and see if this helps with his pain. Also a soak in warm water may help-but do this only if it does not stress him and there are no gaping wounds hidden under those feathers. Otherwise he may enjoy a heat lamp to bask under to help ease those tight muscles. I hope he improves!

 

[coach723]

His pupils do look a bit large for the light he's in, but pictures don't always tell the whole story. If they aren't reacting to light, that's concerning. The neck could be from injury, could be a form of wry neck, the vitamins that @Wyorp Rock recommended might help with that. If it's from an injury from the fighting then it may take some time to see improvement if he's going to get any. A head injury is certainly a possible cause. Not knowing exactly what happened in the fight, it's hard to know. I've had very bloodied birds, broken beaks and spurs, but nothing that caused permanent damage. I'm also very careful with my boys, any signs of any fighting or aggression outside the norms of pecking order, they get separated. Anytime you have more than one boy there is always the possibility that something can happen. Even with separate pens they can be determined, and if they manage to get loose, wreak havoc. I've got 3 adults and one juvenile living together at the moment, with hens, with no big problems, but it very much depends on the birds.

 

[Kris5902]

I am literally in tears right now. This person has taken my sick Rooster and is now personally attacking me on YouTube commenting on all my videos. Can anyone please report my comment and I would like Admins to delete this entire thread

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

How much blood loss did he have? Does he appear to be in shock? How does his eyes look? He might not be blind, but it could be something else.

Give him some sugar water by dipping his beak in it. If he doesn't eat, dip his beak in some mash. (You can make mash by putting your pellets into a blinder until it's mash.)

Try an experiment by having something (like a ball, a coat, or something else noticable) suddenly go over him. He should react if he sees it. You can also try touching his cheek to see if he moves his head away from your finger.

 

[Kris5902]

Zero sight, no tracking or reaction to standard vision testing. He didn’t lose too much blood. He’s not really walking anywhere. My personal guess is damage to the optical nerve/ neurological issues from hard pecking. His eyes are clear but there is little to no reaction in pupil dilation with light changes. I have hydrated and gotten feed into him. And will repeat again tonight before I set him on the roost. I had to set his beak into the feed before he took it. Without significant improvement or confirmation that vision is returnable from this sort of injury he will be put down tomorrow evening. He stumbles and can find his way into the back corner/most sheltered area of his run where he puts his head into the corner and down.