Rooster neck injury

[Zach123]

Hey guys, thanks so much again for the information and advice. I don’t know as what I was seeing was progress, it’s really hard to tell if he is the same, worse, or better.

As for pain, he doesn’t seem to be in any to me either. He’s probably sore from having his neck turned all the time but he’s not showing any signs of real discomfort. The vet gave us some pain meds but I only gave them to him for about a day and haven’t continued.

He has been outside all day today since I am home for the weekend and can monitor him. He’s still super spry, doesn’t have any issue running at full tilt from the mean silkie rooster (Sir Butts A Lot is what my son calls him). Not that I am encouraging him getting chased but a couple times The mean one has gone after him. Still eating the wet food fine and he walked over to the waterer and took a quick drink.

But his symptoms have been off and on. He’ll be mostly fine for a while then suddenly go into fits. Sometimes he’s able to snap out of it on his own and others he ends up just laying on the ground in a heap. I am really hoping he starts to show improvement this week since I will be out of town next weekend for work and my wife is really nervous about taking care of him on her own.

If we do decide to euthanize him or he doesn’t make it I will definitely get a necropsy. I have a really hard time putting him down though when, other than his “episodes” he seems fairly normal.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would make sure that your wife is doing most of his care for the next week to feel comfortable when you are gone. I would also give him some time. Even though the vet thinks there was no trauma, some roosters and chickens do get wry neck with head or neck injuries. Since he does well during the day, that will be the best time to get vitamins, fluids and water into him. Hopefully, he will show some improvement soon.

 

[Zach123]

He takes his vitamins and everything like a champ. I open up one of the vit E capsules and squeeze it out onto a little piece of bread and he gobbles it down. I have him alone with his own food and water during the day. He’s in the fenced off garden where, for the most part, everyone leaves him alone. He doesn’t travel very far and eats and drinks and scratches and pecks though I’m sure that being all by himself isn’t fun for him, but at least he’s not being chased and attacked. That being said, since he’s not been with the flock in a week and won’t be for a while, I’m not sure I will even be able to reintegrate him with the rest of the chickens when this is done. I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it...

I am home today for but go back to work tomorrow and I’m worried that leaving him in the cat carrier all day is not helping him recover but since no one is around to monitor him and make sure the others aren’t chasing and attacking him, I don’t know what else to do with him.

 

[Eggcessive]

Have you tried giving him some supervised visits with the other chickens for a little while each day. That would be good to keep them all familiar while you are gone if your wife can manage it. The hour before they go to roost is a good time, since he may be easier to catch. Glad that he is doing okay.

 

[Zach123]

Yeah, but we have three other roosters and the old Brahma doesn’t pay him any mind but the silkie and the welsummer roos get after him with a vengeance. Like I said he was always the low ranking member but now he’s REALLY seen as an outsider. Like I said he runs from them just fine. But afterwards I think the stress gets to him and sends him into one of his “fits” then They really start hammering on him while he’s flopping around on the ground.

Since we need more hens anyhow to get back to a good rooster/hen ratio (we lost several this summer during an attack and none of the hens went broody for more than a couple days this year) I might have to get him his own little flock and coop. I thought about putting him with the ducks but worried that he might go into a fit and end up drowning in their pool.

He does seem a bit better after being outside for three days. I can’t have him go in the coop at night because I don’t want to leave him “unsupervised” all night, especially with the other chickens. But it’s starting to look like stress is involved with his problems. He really hates to be handled and every time I pick him up or try to do anything other than distract him with food he starts his flailing around.