Weasel attack- Head injury and possible missing eye

[DarthLayer]

My rooster was attack yesterday morning by a weasel. When I took a closer look at him I notice one of his eyes were closed with a small red blob just on the outside of his eyelid. He shook his head and that fell off. I'm not sure if that was his eye or just some blood that had build up there. He also has two wounds on his head that were bleeding badly, but I got it to stop for now. Also his eye stopped bleeding yesterday, but now it has started bleeding again. Please help!

 

[Wyandottes7]

Is he getting picked on by the other birds? That may have made the wounds start bleeding again. If you notice other birds pecking him, I'd first isolate him. IT may be a good idea to isolate him anyways, so that he is easier to treat and keep and eye on.

I'd put some antibiotic ointment (without painkillers or "caine/cain" ingredients-- these are dangerous to chickens) on the wounds, to help prevent infection. If you have any or can get some, spray some BlueKote (antiseptic spray, should be able to be found at a local feed store) on the wounds, too. This will coat them blue, which helps prevents other birds from picking at him, and would help them heal.

Chickens have a remarkable ability to heal from their wounds. As long as you can keep them from getting infected, and he eats and drinks, he should recover.

 

[DarthLayer]

Thank you so much! I don't have any Blue Kote but I think I will be able to get some today. I have him isolated now and he is eating and drinking a little, but not much.

 

[DarthLayer]

Sorry but I have another question. Where he lost his eye, its starting to swell and i think blood is building up behind it. I'm wondering if I should open his eyelid or not?

 

[Wyandottes7]

Sorry but I have another question. Where he lost his eye, its starting to swell and i think blood is building up behind it. I'm wondering if I should open his eyelid or not?

I'm not sure what you should do. I've never dealt, myself, with an eye injury like that, so I don't know what you should do.

 

[fenwickchic]

DarthLayer, How did your rooster do? I see no one answered. Unfortunately, I can't answer either. I just lost my Banty Roo in the afternoon on Friday. I'm so upset. Just his neck was wounded and lots of leg feather and feet feather loss. I think he was fighting a weasel off. Thankfully, he did his job and protected my 5 hens, but I am now very worried about losing the hens. I have a chicken tractor that I had placed in one area next to my garden all spring and summer. I immediately had my DH move the tractor up next to the house. Hopefully, that will confuse the weasel until I can get the tractor up on the concrete patio and winterize it. Hopefully, that will keep them safe until spring when I can get another rooster. I feel awful that during the spring and summer I thought were no issues. Now, looking back, what I thought were chicken skirmishes with each other (comb wounds) I now believe were battles that Charlie (my Roo) had with a weasel and won. I was way too lax about predator security and left the big people tractor door open to the huge fenced run area. Often we would forget to close the pop door. After reading about weasels, I am very, very worried that they will come after the rest of my hens even though they are enclosed in 1/2' hard wire cloth.
My question to you is; have you lost any hens since your Roo was injured and did he recover?