Rooster got his tongue tangled in a string! Help!

[Poohbear]

Will a tongue tied rooster (string) have a CROWING impediment?????? Naaaaaah! He will be just fine in a day or two. Chickens are pretty tough critters.

 

[bheila]

I had this happen with a house chick 2 weeks ago. He got into some sewing thread. I noticed thread hanging out if his beak so I pulled and pulled until I realized he had a foot long piece wrapped around his tongue. I didn't cut it because it helped by pulling his tongue out so I could see better. Then I just unwrapped with tweezers. It's was tons of fun by myself.

 

[dtsnyder]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one this has happened to. We werent able to unwind it because it was on tight and looped around - but cutting the loop freed it. It just took a while for the rest of the string to fall off.

He's looking better tonight - acting his normal self. What a day!

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
Just wanted to say

since I didn't earlier. I'm happy to hear that your rooster is doing better and that his behavior is back to normal; that's an excellent sign!

I hope you'll keep on posting instead of going back into the depths of lurkdom. It's always nice to have new voices here.

 

[bheila]

Quote:
I was terrified I wasn't going to be able to get the string off because it was on so tight. I was affraid his tongue would fall off if I didn't get it all. I'm glad to hear your roo is better.

 

[ole-crone]

Don't assume - USE A MAGNIFYING GLASS!

We had this happen and it appeared that the entire piece of string was removed but luckily my son who was helping me has "bionic closeup vision" and could see a bit still wrapped around the tongue that I couldn't see - with the magnifying glass.

This was bad - the tongue was black. I was sure it was going to fall off. Much to our surprise, the tongue pinked up almost immediately after the little bit left over was removed and the chicken recovered.

So - just to be safe - give a double check with a bright light and magnifying glass. Their tongue has a strange groove that string can hide under.

 

[dtsnyder]

Thanks everyone for all of the help! This chicken raising stuff is very new to me (though I grew up on a cattle ranch).

I was worried when I posted yesterday and instantly got a lot of helpful responses. Thank you for that!

I'm still learning about everything (mostly from this forum) and don't have much input to give, but will definitely stick around.

I'll have to dig out a magnifying glass and take another look - good idea! When we looked last time his tongue slid down his throat - and it was a bit hard to get a good look - though it appeared that everything was gone.

 

[LynneP]

Thanks for letting us know how he is- it's an adventure a minute with them. I've always said that string in the coop is a terrible thing, a lot of people hang cabbage on one...but hey, this will NEVER happen to you, now. Oh my, the things we will do for a critter...

You were raised on a cattle ranch? There's one near here, if I can ever get up the nerve to explain what happened, I'll tell you about the bull that mounted the well crock. It was deadly...