Someone cut my rooster’s beak! 😡😭

[Chikyboy]

Eagley is my hand-raised rooster of mystery heritage. He’s a sweetheart with people he knows but can be territorial towards new humans.

He lives in my neighbour’s flock but he’s very much MY rooster. I visit him most days and we sit together for hours.

Yesterday I went down and was met with this:

View attachment 3052395

Worse still, his chest feathers were all stained with blood.

View attachment 3052396

He was unable to eat any of the treats I’d taken him like sweetcorn, and had an empty crop. I assumed he must have injured his beak somehow so I took him home for some first aid and messaged my neighbour to let him know what had happened.

He replied to say his friend “Bruce” had done it “to stop him attacking people” and that “he should be ok soon”!

There is honestly SO much for me to unpack and sort out here, but my immediate concern for Eagley is - will it grow back?
I’ve had ex battery hens who had been clipped and their beaks never regrew. How far is too far?

Currently he can only manage very soft food like scrambled eggs and pellets made into a super wet mash. His tongue comes out a lot when he eats - I don’t think the pictures show just how bad this is tbh
Is that likely to improve? He’ll adapt, right?

I’ve sterilised the wound and the bleeding has resolved. He isn’t showing any severe signs of pain but birds are so sneaky about hiding it… do you guys think I should be giving him any pain relief?

Thanks in advance for any advice or experience you can share.

I am so sorry.

 

[stargirl]

I'm sorry this happened, it must be hard. I hope he heals up alright and he should. I don't think there's much pain involved, so I wouldn't worry too much. Maybe once he's healed, you can fashion an upper beak out of fake nails and super glue.
There's not enough information for me to really go off regarding who is at fault here.
I'm not sure about UK laws but if he lives with your neighbors flock, he's their rooster. unless you pay some sort of rent or for the feed for him. Or a verbal or written agreement.
"Bruce" shouldn't have clipped him since it won't keep him from flaring up and it's a bit cruel, your neighbors shouldn't have let "Bruce" if they were aware you were the owner of the rooster. We don't even know if there were some escalating events leading to this.

I get the feeling alcohol was involved.
My neighbour’s wife is the real chicken owner but she’s away right now, and this Bruce guy came over and apparently it came up in conversation, so he went out and did it. My neighbour said he didn’t particularly want him to, and his wife is really angry about it too.

I feed Eagley and have also said, multiple times, that I want to be responsible for his care.

The only real issue leading up to this had been Eagley scaring off a gardener last week. Which is absolutely a problem, I agree - and I had offered solutions to - but my neighbour said we should just wait and see if he settled down and there was no need for anything drastic.

Then I came back to this.

 

[stargirl]

Wait....your rooster is on someone else's property attacking people? I'm sorry this happened but it could have been much worse and you would have no legal recourse. I have family in a somewhat (I assume) similar situation where they have an open fence between two big properties where animals from both sides were allowed back and forth. Until one rooster got mean and my family's rooster had his neck snapped by the neighbor. Now the gate is closed between the properties.

Not quite.

I don’t have any land. A neighbour (nearby, but not next door) keeps chickens and heard he was looking for a home and offered to have him join their flock. They’ve had roosters in the past but their older one had died.

So, he lives with them, I just visit. I have no control over who they ask into their land etc.

But the agreement has always been that I’d handle any vet trips or care he needs, and would help out with any hens in the same way.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Not quite.

I don’t have any land. A neighbour (nearby, but not next door) keeps chickens and heard he was looking for a home and offered to have him join their flock. They’ve had roosters in the past but their older one had died.

So, he lives with them, I just visit. But the agreement has always been that I’m responsible for any vet trips or care he needs.

Gotcha. So he should have cleared this with you before doing it anyway. You are kind of in a hard spot because if he chooses not to communicate with you you won't have any way of dissuading him from doing anything else in the future. Do you have any plans to move somewhere where you can take the rooster back?

 

[stargirl]

Gotcha. So he should have cleared this with you before doing it anyway. You are kind of in a hard spot because if he chooses not to communicate with you you won't have any way of dissuading him from doing anything else in the future. Do you have any plans to move somewhere where you can take the rooster back?

We’re not in a position to move, no. I’m trying to rent or buy local land as I’m in a rural area, but it’s ludicrously difficult despite all the empty fields outside my window!

For now, neighbour’s nice wife and I have agreed that I can put him in a separate house and run on their land, and that I will get a few hens to keep with him. I’ll take responsibility for feeding and cleaning it all, and let him out when I’m there.

They’re honestly really nice people and she, in particular, understands what it’s like to love a bird and want to keep them close. It’s really kind of them.

The new set up should mean Eagley will be more clearly “my responsibility”, and the gardener can come back in etc.

It means Eagley will have a bit less freedom to roam, but honestly he’s not a huge fan of the outdoors anyway so I think he’ll adapt fine! I hope this will mean he is safe from any interference going forwards.

And then perhaps down the line, we can review things.

 

[stargirl]

I'm so sorry about your baby! That's just plain wrong in my opinion. I don't believe the beak will grow back unfortunately if it drew blood... in time he should adapt. It won't be immediatel though- over the next few weeks I would try adding less and less water to the feed to see if he can manage more solid foods. The eggs are good for him either way though!

If you can get ahold of some, I would give him Colloidal Silver (2mL of 250ppm- 500ppm is safe too, just half the dosage.) It's completely safe for humans and all animals and it'll boost his immune system and help fight any possible infections from the wound. I've given it to parrots, quail, chickens, geese, dog and cats and it has always helped. I'm not too sure what could be given to help reduce pain though... I would just try to keep him comfortable

Thank you so much for all your advice! I’ll look into the silver asap. I have a bird rescue formula called ‘guardian Angel’ that I use with parrots so I’ve dosed him with that so far.

I’m a bit heartbroken that it won’t grow back . His number 1 favourite food is red grapes and I tried to give him some today but he just looked at them in a sad sort of way.
Eventually I tore them into tiny pieces and he was able to eat them, but normally he would stab the skin with his beak then peck out all the juicy bits.

It’s just so cruel.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

That sounds like a better arrangement!

 

[dct10]

Eagley is my hand-raised rooster of mystery heritage. He’s a sweetheart with people he knows but can be territorial towards new humans.

He lives in my neighbour’s flock but he’s very much MY rooster. I visit him most days and we sit together for hours.

Yesterday I went down and was met with this:

View attachment 3052395

Worse still, his chest feathers were all stained with blood.

View attachment 3052396

He was unable to eat any of the treats I’d taken him like sweetcorn, and had an empty crop. I assumed he must have injured his beak somehow so I took him home for some first aid and messaged my neighbour to let him know what had happened.

He replied to say his friend “Bruce” had done it “to stop him attacking people” and that “he should be ok soon”!

There is honestly SO much for me to unpack and sort out here, but my immediate concern for Eagley is - will it grow back?
I’ve had ex battery hens who had been clipped and their beaks never regrew. How far is too far?

Currently he can only manage very soft food like scrambled eggs and pellets made into a super wet mash. His tongue comes out a lot when he eats - I don’t think the pictures show just how bad this is tbh
Is that likely to improve? He’ll adapt, right?

I’ve sterilised the wound and the bleeding has resolved. He isn’t showing any severe signs of pain but birds are so sneaky about hiding it… do you guys think I should be giving him any pain relief?

Thanks in advance for any advice or experience you can share.

Bruce needs his beak clipped.

 

[stargirl]

A little update on Eagley’s beak situation.

It’s now healed over and seems to be bothering him a bit less. He’s still struggling with some foods and is grooming himself less, but he seems more himself.

A tricky thing is it seems to be regrowing now, but only at the sides! You can see it in this photo - the white bits that protrude from his top beak down to overlap the bottom one are new.

This is a lot of beak growth in a short time so I assume it’s in response to the horrid cutting, but I can’t see this coming together to make a comfortable shape for him. Hopefully I’m wrong - nature can be amazing at finding a way, after all.

I’m just really hoping he doesn’t end up needing regular stressful beak trims because of this whole stupid situation.

Happily at least, he’s now safely in his own coop and run in the paddock, so there’s no reason for anyone to interfere with him ever again. I’ll get him some hens for company soon, but honestly right now he seems very happy to be safe on his own!

 

[BelovedBirds]

Eagley is my hand-raised rooster of mystery heritage. He’s a sweetheart with people he knows but can be territorial towards new humans.

He lives in my neighbour’s flock but he’s very much MY rooster. I visit him most days and we sit together for hours.

Yesterday I went down and was met with this:

View attachment 3052395

Worse still, his chest feathers were all stained with blood.

View attachment 3052396

He was unable to eat any of the treats I’d taken him like sweetcorn, and had an empty crop. I assumed he must have injured his beak somehow so I took him home for some first aid and messaged my neighbour to let him know what had happened.

He replied to say his friend “Bruce” had done it “to stop him attacking people” and that “he should be ok soon”!

There is honestly SO much for me to unpack and sort out here, but my immediate concern for Eagley is - will it grow back?
I’ve had ex battery hens who had been clipped and their beaks never regrew. How far is too far?

Currently he can only manage very soft food like scrambled eggs and pellets made into a super wet mash. His tongue comes out a lot when he eats - I don’t think the pictures show just how bad this is tbh
Is that likely to improve? He’ll adapt, right?

I’ve sterilised the wound and the bleeding has resolved. He isn’t showing any severe signs of pain but birds are so sneaky about hiding it… do you guys think I should be giving him any pain relief?

Thanks in advance for any advice or experience you can share.

That is awful, I feel so bad for the poor boy