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.

 

[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.

 

[Peaches Lee]

So is he running into things, walking slowly, not really moving from one spot?

If his eyes seem clear, no cloudiness, no large pupils (like abnormally large) or damage to the lens of the eyes, I'm thinking he might just be depressed or still pretty hurt and needing time to recover,

 

[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.

 

[Kris5902]

@coach723 ? @Wyorp Rock ? Any thoughts?

 

[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/

 

[Kris5902]

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/

That was what I needed needed to buy him a few more days. Depression is for sure, he’s crestfallen and has never lost (nor actually been in) a confrontation before. Which is why I won’t isolate him from his girls, I’m pretty sure that would crush him. It also isn’t particularly cold here, so I don’t think he needs too much extra heat. I gave him some nitro drench and the thing he did eat was a bit of mashed pellet, soaked scratch and some sardines. He did perk up a tad more tonight but still had the apparent lack of sight. If it’s neurological and might return, any idea on how long before we start to see any signs of that? I’ve had boys partially sighted boys and he will be fine if he gets just enough back to function, heck I’ll even help him up onto the roost at night.

I’ll take some photos of him tomorrow. I used blu kote on his comb and a styptic powder on his spur. It pulled off, not snapped. He was clearly pecked hard on the top of his head, and he was just finishing up his slow molt…

 

[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.

 

[1cock2hens]

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

 

[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.