We rotated all the poultry enclosures last week. The RIR, and wives, and the Welbar and wives were back next to each other again.

All was well in the morning. Mid afternoon the RIR had nearly killed the Welbar. He was laying down, half dead, covered in blood.

We cleaned him up. It took two days to stop the bleeding. Sudecrem, nappy cream stopped it in the end. We have been putting him outside in the nursery run when the weather is fine.

Here is the problem. Can chicken get brain damage from fighting? We have been hand feeding him 4/5 times a day, for a good 20 minutes, and forcing down water. He will eat and drink it and his crop becomes full, but he won't do it on his own.

Is he just traumertised or has he forgotten how or is it too soon to tell?

We have been feeding him on hard boiled eggs, mixed with oats, milk and layers pellets. I roll a blob up, put it in his mouth and then he sort of sups it up and swallows. On his last feed today he drank a tiny bit on his own, when we dipped his beak in water.

What do you think? Are we fighting a losing battle? He is such a lovely bird and we want to give him a chance, but are we wasting our time?

Alison

-- Alison Homa (alisonhoma@hotmail.com), January 15, 2002

Answers

If this happened just 2 days ago he may still be in shock. I haven't had any chickens with concussion, but a human can be semi-concious for a while. If you think him worth the effort, I would keep him warm and try to care for him for a couple of more days. He'll either make it or he won't. Good luck.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), January 15, 2002.

I agree with Terri. Keep him locked up tight away from the other birds (in case he's working up an infection that could be contagious). Keep him warm with lots of hay and make food and water available to him. Do not force feed him or try to force water. I promise you that if and when he's hungry and thirsty he will do this on his own, or at least try. Birds go into a stress-induced comatose situation sort of like humans feel in a fright-flight situation. All the adrenaline gets up, the brain fades, and instinct takes over. After the situation dies down, you know how it is, hours later you realize you're crashing. Same with a bird or any other animal. Just give him some quiet down time and see if he comes out of it. My old hen took almost a week, but one morning there she was, screeching at the pen door and doing her "sun dance".

Good luck

-- HarleyinFL (cruisindog@juno.com), January 15, 2002.

Yes, caution on the force feeding him. all it takes is one time for water/food to go into the lungs rather than down the right pipe & he won't have a chance. as the last person who posted said, he'll drink/eat when he's ready. if you have the powder vitamin/electrolytes, mix that in his water. otherwise, continue to feed him what you're giving, along with some dry cat food soaked in water.

sounds like he's in good care. you're giving him good food & you took care of his wounds. you might consider cleaning his wounds with peroxide, then applying a triple antiobiotic cream to stave off infection, if you haven't already.

most likely he'll bounce right back & be good as new in a week. chickens are amazingly resilient.

keeping my fingers crossed he pulls through.

-- buk buk (bukabuk@hotmail.com), January 15, 2002.

When I was a child, My Uncle use to raise and care for roosters for "cock fighting" In Cuba. Of course these animals are very strong and they use to figth a lot. But I remember that one time. One of his Champions went into what I thought, was a coma. My uncle soaked his head in icy water and them in warm water and brought him around, and later he fed him bread with warm milk and a small amount of warm wine, took him two weeks to bring his rooster back to normal, and after that the rooster continued his career as an excellent cock fighter, I never really approved my uncle doing these kind of things. But I loved him anyways. Good Luck!!! Ralph.

-- Ralph Roces (rroces1@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.