Rooster rescued from a coyote, using Manuka honey

[Sunshine Flock]

Confession.

I just ate an entire row of Andes chocolate mints, and half was my husband's. He's at work and they weren't. My confessions always start with chocolate.

And now for Henry.

When Henry was at his worst with this badly swollen leg and ankle, I found a bloody polyp in his droppings. Just one, but it was alarming. It may not have been an actual polyp per se, but that's what it looked like.

I didn't post here about it because I was feeling pretty run down and worried. I was questioning whether Henry was slowly heading toward a whole body infection. I've since learned he wasn't; swelling is often part of the healing process and doesn't always indicate infection. But I didn't quite grasp that just yet, so it was an upsetting day.

The blood in his stool and the ballooning leg scared me. You've been supportive and encouraging throughout his recovery, grounded in the reality of his injuries but holding hope and nudging me along. But this seemed to be a sign that Henry was beginning to decline.

I needed quiet time to reflect and didn't want to open myself to the inevitable (and understandable) feedback that perhaps it was time to consider saying goodbye. Once again I put Henry on a three day watch, and as always throughout his healing Henry was strong and vivacious in his personality, attentiveness to his hens he could watch out in the chicken run, and his appetite.

And so the boy just kept on keeping on. But I almost didn't. Thankfully I was careful in my reactions, a good listener to what he was telling me, and medicated with ample supplies of chocolate, Starbucks chai lattes and Netflix.

I thought you should know. Videos soon, folks.

(Brought to you by @cavemanrich, @biophiliac and Carlos Nakai.)

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Here's a new video of Henry. I filmed it on Christmas Eve when we were sorting wood in my scrap pile for a Christmas bonfire.

I'm becoming more and more uncomfortable socializing online. I don't do social media anymore, and despite how much I love participating in the forums here, I'm a different kind of bird and feel more sure of myself on the sidelines.

It's not such a bad place to be.

Thank you for tolerating my ramblings and for all of your kindness and generosity. It surprises me how anxious I feel re-reading my earlier entries, so I only made it to page three. But I appreciate having this archive.

Here are the first four videos I posted. They're a good reference for comparing Henry's progress.

We wish you a beautiful, blessed and bountiful New Year, folks!

 

[Birdinhand]

wow, that is just jaw dropping! his foot is mostly functional at this point, it's kind of incredible. my 8 year old daughter is sitting here with me and made me play every video, wanting to see the progression.

It's really inspiring to see, his paralysis seems to be almost totally reversed. if I had to venture at estimating his level of recovery I'd put it at 85%. what is remarkable is that his toes are working mostly, maybe not his back toe but everything is working well enough that if his progress stopped today he'd lead a relatively normal life. from looking at the most recent video of him walking and how he places his right foot I would say that his feeling has mostly returned but not all the way. the speed of recovery however would suggest to me that he will likely have a full recovery of sensation. I don't know if his foot will ever be 100% back to normal but I think he will continue to improve for some time to come. in general, I think the majority of the healing will be done at 6 months but some of the deep nerve repair may even take longer and his attempts at adapting to whatever the long term disability may be will probably continue on.

you have done such a wonderful job, learned so much and share so much with all of us and for that I feel gratitude. you have created a record for others who find themselves nursing a severely injured pet back to health. when you posted the first part of this thread I would have put his chances of survival at near zero %.

my ferret that I had when I was a child got out of it's pen and was gone for a week and it was attacked by something, probably a dog. our neighbor found it a mile from our house with a broken hip, a punctured lung and according to our vet, various internal organ injuries. it took many months to heal up but did eventually recover, but it never lost complete use and feeling of one of it's legs like Henry.

anyway, I'm babbling on, but in any case this has been an epic journey with a happy ending, thanks again for sharing and have a wonderful new year!

 

[WhatAboutBob?]

I was going to say that his sensation/proprioception is improved, but not complete. He sometimes doesn’t realize where his foot is until he moves the knee and hip joints.

Other than that, just WOW!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Hiya folks!

I'd like to get some feedback from Henry's wonderful team of healers. He's doing great, no indication of problems of any kind, aside from his weight. He seems light for a rooster, and he has a prominent keel bone. I started a discussion about this in the breeds forum, but I think here is a better place to address this.

The hens all have prominent keel bones I can easily feel when I hold them. They're ten month old Welsummers, and I feed them organic Modesto Millings soy-free layer pellets. Once a week or so I give them some cooked eggs, and I also give them a small amount of pumpkin seeds, mostly as a way to lure them back to the chicken run when they've been out free ranging with me.

I saved the crumbled dusty pellets at the bottom of the empty feed bag and made mash, which they love. They gobble it up, so I'm doing more mash. Should I be concerned about the keel bone?

Henry isn't comfortable roosting. He wants to be up at night, but anything smaller than six inches wide makes him wobbly and unstable. So he sleeps on an over turned wood crate. Since his hocks probably rest all the way down on the wood, I put down a towel, and he definitely prefers sleeping on it to the bare wood.

Any thoughts on this? His right ankle is still swollen relative to the other one, but he has great mobility. He runs like the dickens and loves standing on a tree stump to oversee his hens and keep them safe. I do find him sometimes standing with the toes on his good foot overlapping the right foot. I think this probably speaks to a diminished sense of sensation in that foot. Would you agree?

Thank you!!

 

[WhatAboutBob?]

Hiya folks!

I'd like to get some feedback from Henry's wonderful team of healers. He's doing great, no indication of problems of any kind, aside from his weight. He seems light for a rooster, and he has a prominent keel bone. I started a discussion about this in the breeds forum, but I think here is a better place to address this.

The hens all have prominent keel bones I can easily feel when I hold them. They're ten month old Welsummers, and I feed them organic Modesto Millings soy-free layer pellets. Once a week or so I give them some cooked eggs, and I also give them a small amount of pumpkin seeds, mostly as a way to lure them back to the chicken run when they've been out free ranging with me.

I saved the crumbled dusty pellets at the bottom of the empty feed bag and made mash, which they love. They gobble it up, so I'm doing more mash. Should I be concerned about the keel bone?

Henry isn't comfortable roosting. He wants to be up at night, but anything smaller than six inches wide makes him wobbly and unstable. So he sleeps on an over turned wood crate. Since his hocks probably rest all the way down on the wood, I put down a towel, and he definitely prefers sleeping on it to the bare wood.

Any thoughts on this? His right ankle is still swollen relative to the other one, but he has great mobility. He runs like the dickens and loves standing on a tree stump to oversee his hens and keep them safe. I do find him sometimes standing with the toes on his good foot overlapping the right foot. I think this probably speaks to a diminished sense of sensation in that foot. Would you agree?

Thank you!!

I would agree. I am not certain regarding the keel bone issue, sorry I cannot give any constructive input in that regard.

 

[Birdinhand]

you continue to do a wonderful job rehabbing Henry. from the sounds of it, he's at something like a 90% recovery, which is miraculous in my book. unless you see signs of malnourishment, worms or other ailment, I wouldn't worry about his weight too much. to really get a beed on his weight, you'd have to be rather objective about it, put him on a scale, have a weight range to compare it to for a rooster of his breed/mix, ideally know what his weight was before the accident and then there is the chance that he will not regain all his muscle mass due to paralysis. there is even a flip side to him being on the lightweight side, it may be really important to his recover right now. having a bunch of extra weight on right now could hinder his mobility. trust the process! you don't need to be certain about everything. as for his toes overlapping, I would agree that he is still probably having numbness, some of which he may have for the rest of his life, only time will tell. giving him a cushy platform to roost is awesome but I'd continue to encourage the regaining of his ability to roost "normally". maybe cut a section of towel, or use a face cloth and wrap the roost to make it extra bulky and comfortable and easy for him to balance on and gradually reduce the thickness over time to the extent to which he can handle it. a more natural foot position at night with roosting **might** help him with his toe/foot/leg function even during the day. having the goal of him being able to roost on the flat, 3.5" side of a two by four is likely all he really would need to learn to do, that way his hocks will be less likely to get calloused and less flexible. all that said, if his ability to roost on a typical roosting bar is forever limited, that is a pretty minimal disability, all things considered and at some point his gains will plateau and adaptation will be where the remaining gains will be made. you are just going to have to feel all that out. another video of him doing his thing would be fun. keep up the good work!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It's hard to know about the keel bone. We all feel and describe things differently. You may want to take a look at the body condition scores below and of course there are plenty more if you google something like chicken body condition chart.

In layers you should still feel the keel bone, so you will want to evaluate the breast muscle too. It is probably better for them to be on the slightly light side than heavy since excess weight/fat can cause fatty liver disease, stress on internal organs and reproductive problems.

 

[Chullicken]

I just happened to stumble onto this article reading another article. Just fantastic! People often let ourselves down in just general decision making and careless existence, but you have truly given me a flicker of light that people are out there that actually do still give a damn and do the right thing. This entire posting show's nothing but vigilance, character and sensibility with heaps of compassion and ownership as a husbandman of livestock.

The level and concern of my fellow BYC members never ceases to amaze and inspire me to be better and do more.

 

[ChuSayBok]

I'm late getting back to Henry, for some reason it wasn't in my alerts. Thanks for posting the videos. It's so awesome to see someone put this kind of time and energy into helping another creature, even when it's inconvenient and seems doomed to failure. So here's a big WOOOOOO to you Sunshine Flock!
And don't be surprised if he continues to improve over the next year. I've seen that happen with one of mine, I think I wrote about much earlier in the thread.