Sick rooster, leg and neck injury

[ochochicas]

The recovery of my rooster after being bitten by a coyote has been a roller coaster. He slowly improved each day, but there were days when he didn't look like he was improving, and other days when he did a ton better. Some days he would make noise, and then he'd be silent. Some days he walked around, and others he didn't want to stand up. Each day he seemed to have more energy though, and he'd fight me when I was doing his treatments. Last Tuesday marked two weeks since I brought him in the house and started him on antibiotics. Tuesday was a great day for him. He was up and walking, very alert and energetic. He gobbled up every bit of food we put in front of him. He honest looked like he had turned the corner and was going to make it. Wednesday morning he had a great appetite and ate a huge bowl of food. He got a fresh bowl of vegetables before I left for work. When I got home, he was laying down and had not eaten all day. he didn't even lift his head when I came in the room. I could tell something had gone wrong. When I looked in his mouth, he had eaten some flock raiser but pellet mush had come back up and was filling his mouth. Through the evening we tried to get him to eat. He would swallow bits of scrambled egg when placed in his mouth, but it was clear that he had given up and was ready to pass on.

He spent one more night in front of the wood stove. We hoped he was just having a bad day and would look better in the morning. Unfortunately the decision to end his suffering was the only right thing to do. As hard as it was, it is our responsibility as animal caretakers to do what is right or our animals.

Of course there are all the "maybe" questions that will never be answered. Maybe the infection in his leg was found too late. Maybe he had irreparable damage to his neck. Maybe the antibiotics were not the correct ones. Maybe if my vet had ever called me back we could have started him on a different treatment. The list goes on...

In any event, it apparently was meant to be this way. Our rooster had a great life on the farm (albeit too short of one) living with his flock and creating some of the world's cutest little chicks. Currently there are some cockerels in the brooder that are going to have some big shoes to fill. We'll pick one or two to take the place of their pappa. His passing means that they get to live, so there is some peace in that.

Thank you everyone for the advice. I wish this story had a happier ending.

RIP Roo Roo
April 20 - December 4, 2014

 

[ArekE]

This is the saddest thing that i have read all month. I read the whole thing and i was happy to hear improvment. Then when i heard he turned for the worst it almost made me cry. Great story though.

 

[chooks4life]

Very sorry to hear that. You did your best, and all the what-ifs are now irrelevant.

He was a handsome fellow, looks quite different in that last pic of him. Really does show how affected he was, in the earlier thread pics.

Sorry for your loss. Great to hear you got bubs though! Hate losing a good animal without getting to breed them, that's even worse than just losing it outright.

 

[jgoldy2]

The recovery of my rooster after being bitten by a coyote has been a roller coaster. He slowly improved each day, but there were days when he didn't look like he was improving, and other days when he did a ton better. Some days he would make noise, and then he'd be silent. Some days he walked around, and others he didn't want to stand up. Each day he seemed to have more energy though, and he'd fight me when I was doing his treatments. Last Tuesday marked two weeks since I brought him in the house and started him on antibiotics. Tuesday was a great day for him. He was up and walking, very alert and energetic. He gobbled up every bit of food we put in front of him. He honest looked like he had turned the corner and was going to make it. Wednesday morning he had a great appetite and ate a huge bowl of food. He got a fresh bowl of vegetables before I left for work. When I got home, he was laying down and had not eaten all day. he didn't even lift his head when I came in the room. I could tell something had gone wrong. When I looked in his mouth, he had eaten some flock raiser but pellet mush had come back up and was filling his mouth. Through the evening we tried to get him to eat. He would swallow bits of scrambled egg when placed in his mouth, but it was clear that he had given up and was ready to pass on.

He spent one more night in front of the wood stove. We hoped he was just having a bad day and would look better in the morning. Unfortunately the decision to end his suffering was the only right thing to do. As hard as it was, it is our responsibility as animal caretakers to do what is right or our animals.

Of course there are all the "maybe" questions that will never be answered. Maybe the infection in his leg was found too late. Maybe he had irreparable damage to his neck. Maybe the antibiotics were not the correct ones. Maybe if my vet had ever called me back we could have started him on a different treatment. The list goes on...

In any event, it apparently was meant to be this way. Our rooster had a great life on the farm (albeit too short of one) living with his flock and creating some of the world's cutest little chicks. Currently there are some cockerels in the brooder that are going to have some big shoes to fill. We'll pick one or two to take the place of their pappa. His passing means that they get to live, so there is some peace in that.

Thank you everyone for the advice. I wish this story had a happier ending.

RIP Roo Roo
April 20 - December 4, 2014

Thankyou for posting what is clearly sad news, I hope that we can all remember that he lived a great life, and will always be remembered, that would be a cute profile pic, and I also wanted to share a small story.

2 years ago we started getting meat birds, some time after the first butchering day a coyote came while the chickens were out early in the morning and before our dog could wake us up a brown leghorn that we had gotten due to the fact that it was a good deal at Murdocks was gone and a Golden Laced Wyandotte had a chunk of feathers gone just below the hackle the next day we had friends over and as we were being the chickens we saw her, not able to move a muscle below the head, we moved her to a nest box in search of her surviving, but the next day at my brother's baseball games our friends asked us how she was, and when I asked my mom she told us that the hen had passed over night