warning- graphic image of rooster with bloody mass hanging from beak

[tiemyshoelaces]

I don't even know where to start-

woke up and let chicken out of coop and my rooster had a bloody mass hanging out of his beak. upon inspection, it didn't look like he was attacked. he seemed ok but honestly couldn't find anything like this on here or anywhere else and it didn't seem possible he would recover. we made the difficult decision to cull him but I can't stop thinking about him

anyone know what this could be? my best guess after reading all day seemed to be maybe he ate or was bitten by something poisonous?

or maybe his crow collar strangled him? we took off crow collar when examining him but didn't really change anything

I feel so horrible! and have felt horrible all day

anyways, I'm putting this in emergency to see if anyone recognizes what might've caused this in case it happens to one of my other hens

lower beak isn't missing, we confirmed it was there

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry for your loss. I have seen other pictures of a similar thing happening when roosters fight. I don’t know if that is the crop, tongue and throat, or what tissue that is that has come out. @Wyorp Rock do you recall seeing this before in a picture?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@Wyorp Rock

OP, I'm so sorry for your experience and for the loss of your rooster, but I do want to thank you for joining BYC. I hope you find answers, I don't believe there's any group or organization better for finding solutions to chicken problems than right here at Backyard Chickens.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry about your rooster.

I do believe that is the tongue, glottis/trachea and perhaps esphagous opening hanging out.

The amount of blood splatter and dried blood around the face, comb, feathers would lead me to believe he was attacked by something. Not sure where you are located, but if at nighttime, maybe a Raccoon.

It may be a good idea to check to make sure your coop/run are secured. If it was a critter, it will return. They always do unfortunately.
If you have a game camera, that's a very useful tool in at least showing activity around your coop/inside the coop, perimeter, etc.

 

[tiemyshoelaces]

I'm sorry about your rooster.

I do believe that is the tongue, glottis/trachea and perhaps esphagous opening hanging out.

The amount of blood splatter and dried blood around the face, comb, feathers would lead me to believe he was attacked by something. Not sure where you are located, but if at nighttime, maybe a Raccoon.

It may be a good idea to check to make sure your coop/run are secured. If it was a critter, it will return. They always do unfortunately.
If you have a game camera, that's a very useful tool in at least showing activity around your coop/inside the coop, perimeter, etc.

we do have a camera but it only records events outside coop- increased the sensitivity and will resecure door etc

it's also weird because we don't think he was like that when we locked them up at night (they were roosting though so hubby couldn't say 100 percent) and when he went to let them out this morning noticed it but there was nothing in the coop and chickens couldn't get out so it's weird that something might have gone in and out without leaving an opening for the chickens to go out

think there was any chance of saving rooster if we took him in to a vets?

thank you for the information!

 

[tiemyshoelaces]

@Wyorp Rock

OP, I'm so sorry for your experience and for the loss of your rooster, but I do want to thank you for joining BYC. I hope you find answers, I don't believe there's any group or organization better for finding solutions to chicken problems than right here at Backyard Chickens.

omgosh I was so nervous to post because I don't usually post anything online and figured I'd only get back "you were negligent" comments

and I was so shocked everyone has been nothing but kind here

like I never thought I would be so attached to my feathered family

 

[BigBlueHen53]

omgosh I was so nervous to post because I don't usually post anything online and figured I'd only get back "you were negligent" comments

and I was so shocked everyone has been nothing but kind here

like I never thought I would be so attached to my feathered family

Believe me, we understand here. Most of us are VERY attached to our chickens. I don't see how anyone could blame you for what happened. Stuff happens ... sometimes, no matter how hard we try ... it's a running battle, trying to stay ahead of predators. It must have been a real shock to see your rooster like that. I'm only one person and this is just my own reaction, but in all honesty if that had been my rooster I would have put him down as fast as I could. I would not have let him suffer a minute longer than necessary. But I don't have much experience with doctoring my birds, either. So that's just me. I think you did the right thing although I might cry afterward.

 

[tiemyshoelaces]

Believe me, we understand here. Most of us are VERY attached to our chickens. I don't see how anyone could blame you for what happened. Stuff happens ... sometimes, no matter how hard we try ... it's a running battle, trying to stay ahead of predators. It must have been a real shock to see your rooster like that. I'm only one person and this is just my own reaction, but in all honesty if that had been my rooster I would have put him down as fast as I could. I would not have let him suffer a minute longer than necessary. But I don't have much experience with doctoring my birds, either. So that's just me. I think you did the right thing although I might cry afterward.

thank you for your kind words- it has been a horrible day and your kind words make me feel a little better in my decision

like we usually would be conservative- wait a few hours/days, see if they were eating/drinking, try to administer meds, I mean we are no strangers to taking chickens to the vets (have 2x $600+ vet bills from a scissorbeak(didn't make it), and a raccoon attack(surprisingly made it through anesthesia and sutures and still thriving!) on two separate occasions)

but this time my gut just said to thank him for always protecting the girls and let him rest but I can't stop thinking maybe I should have tried to take him to the vets (we don't have a lot of avían vets here so we have to our neighboring state's avían specialist and they rarely take same day appt) and we didn't want him to suffer because it looked very uncomfortable/painful

I just hope we made the right decision and hope we can be more vigilant for the rest of the flock if it was indeed a raccoon- I wonder if something happened the night before he went to roost and we didn't notice it when we locked them up

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hopefully there won't be any more problems. Keep us posted. Meanwhile, if you haven't already done so, I'd like to encourage you to post an introduction to the New Members thread and browse around the site a bit to get to know us.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

we do have a camera but it only records events outside coop- increased the sensitivity and will resecure door etc

it's also weird because we don't think he was like that when we locked them up at night (they were roosting though so hubby couldn't say 100 percent) and when he went to let them out this morning noticed it but there was nothing in the coop and chickens couldn't get out so it's weird that something might have gone in and out without leaving an opening for the chickens to go out

think there was any chance of saving rooster if we took him in to a vets?

thank you for the information!

I have cameras too that see the outside, but often it's interesting to put one inside or set up a game cam to see what's going on.

Did you make the right decision to put him down?

Yes, I think you did. If he were mine, I would have put him down immediately. Not easy at all, but yes.

I have seen similar protrusions here on BYC. None of us really knew/know what caused the issue, could have been spider, bee or something else, but I do not recall any surviving even with vet care and/or attempting to treat with something like Benadryl, antibiotics, etc.
Seemed like they only lived for maybe a day or two, I'd have to re-read threads to see, but these 2 linked below are a couple of them.

Your fella may not have been attacked, but the blood splatter on him reminds me of roosters that have been in a fight either with something or each other.

I'm glad you did join and I'm sorry about your big beautiful boy.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/horrible-swollen-thing-coming-out-of-my-hens-mouth.763473/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-organ-hanging-from-the-mouth-tumor.1170982/