Rooster has bone sticking out of neck!

[21hens-incharge]

What an amazing thing to have happened and an amazing guy to have gone to the right people to help him!

 

[coach723]

So glad you were able to remove it with no issues, has to feel better. I found this old thread, thought it might interest you (there are pictures in post#8 and #12). I also wonder if it's a piece of wood, or woody stem from a plant. It does happen.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/impaled-chicken.1262398/

 

[Cheltaran]

Here' is a close-up of the part that was inside him. I don't know what those white dots on it are, and it looks like there's a groove down the centre. Maybe it is a deformed feather? It looks a bit like the hollow part of a quill pen, so wondering if that's the hollow part on the inside of the feather shaft. See arrow.

 

[MysteryChicken]

We recently rescued a stray rooster and have been looking after him. Today we noticed that there's a bone sticking out of the back of his neck, near where the wing joins the body. He doesn't seem to be in any visible pain or showing any other symptoms, and there's no blood or signs of infection. It's hidden under his neck feathers and lays flat, so we didn't see it until today when my partner was picking him up to see how he's doing (he was very skinny when we caught him, trying to see if he's put on any weight).

Anyone have any ideas? We were thinking of keeping him, but if this is a major issue we may have to surrender him so they can either put him down or treat it.

A bone sticking through the skin seems like a MAJOR issue to me, but the fact that it doesn't seem to be causing him any issues or bleeding, etc, makes me unsure.

Photos attached.
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Edit: More Photos
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I think it's his Scapula, or shoulder blade.

He might've been in a freak accident.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Never mind I came in too late.

 

[Cheltaran]

I think it's his Scapula, or shoulder blade.
View attachment 2282845He might've been in a freak accident.

I thought the same thing when it was inside him, but now that we've removed it I'm not entirely sure. It seems too long, and weird shaped at the darker end? I honestly have no idea. See page 5 for the updated images of the object once we'd removed it.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I thought the same thing when it was inside him, but now that we've removed it I'm not entirely sure. It seems too long, and weird shaped at the darker end? I honestly have no idea. See page 5 for the updated images of the object once we'd removed it.

I just read through it.
Bone does turn black in the body, or if it's membrane starts rotting. It does look like bone, for sure.

 

[DogAndCat36]

I thought the same thing when it was inside him, but now that we've removed it I'm not entirely sure. It seems too long, and weird shaped at the darker end? I honestly have no idea. See page 5 for the updated images of the object once we'd removed it.

I hope that it is just a deformed feather.

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

Can you feel around his shoulder areas and see if you can feel his Scapulas? If you can feel it on both sides of his body, then it isn’t his. I would be surprised if it is, it just seems so too crazy to have happened.

 

[Fishychix]

Update: So we had yet another feel of the thing. When we were inspecting it we could feel that there was some give in it, and once it came out a tiny bit we could feel the end of it inside him. Definitely NOT attached.

We decided to remove it. It came out fairly easily, and the roo was calm the whole time, didn't see to cause him much pain coming out. No blood at all! Though we still bathed the wound in antibacterial wash anyway, and will do that twice a day for the next week just in case. He's walking around as normal, eating, drinking, chasing the hens. Doesn't seem to be any worse the wear.

Here are the photos of the object. It's definitely not an echidna quill, but might be some other sort of foreign body? It still has characteristics of bone, except the colour. It's about 11cm long, which is 4.3 inches! I've added a line in some of the pics to show where it was stuck up to. The end that was inside him is the dark end, which is 5-6cm (2-2.5 inches). The shorter end is the part that was on the outside. Crazy! Still have no idea what the thing is.

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Wow! Good work