Hi all,
about a week ago i noticed one of the neighborhood roosters in my yard with what appeared to be black gunk all over his head (my first thought was someone did something cruel and dumped something hot on him but honestly idk). he looked wretched, but at the time i was not intending to make it my own problem, as i often do (LOL). however, a few days went by, and he went from perching on our fence and eating the stray cats' food to lying down in surrounding yards, looking--for all intents and purposes--completely dead. i kept coming to check him what i assumed would finally be his corpse, trash bag in hand, but each time, he was still alive. i ended up getting him some water to drink, and then some baby food to eat, and then one thing led to another and wouldn't you know it, now he's recovering (tentative) in my garage.
so far, i've followed the advice of the forums and a few friends who rescue ducks/chickens up north, and have flushed the maggots from his wound, sprayed with vetericyn, applied plain neosporin, given him water dosed with aspirin, and am feeding him baby food as often as i can. I think, in the grand scheme of things, he looks at least marginally better, and seems...stable? if completely pathetic (in an endearing way of course). he eats, but only if you dribble food into the side of his mouth with a syringe or hold a little bowl directly under his mouth, perhaps related to question 2 below.
naturally i have a litany of concerns, but a couple burning questions currently: 1) there is a hole in his head and i can see his skull. as far as i know, skin like...won't grow back over that? will he have an exposed skull for the rest of his little life? and 2) he's blind in one eye from a previous fight, and at this point, he's holding his head at an extreme angle--the good eye is facing up but he pretty consistently holds his head at like a 90 degree angle to the side. not sure if that's a result of his current pain levels or just the massive head trauma, etc; i didn't think his neck was like broken or anything because when i first saw he was injured i don't think he was holding his head to the side.
just sort of looking for some insight on the above, if i am cruelly keeping him alive for selfish desires to triumph over what seemed like certain death, etc etc. perhaps i am expecting too much too soon, and this is totally normal and everything is (relatively) fine. Any info you all can provide would be appreciated. also attaching two really poorly taken photos of his injury just after the first time i cleaned it on tuesday evening, versus this morning on Friday (pink towel photo). also, because i sent the initial photo to someone and they said it looked like the black stuff was sticktight fleas and the yellow stuff was eggs (?), please let me know if you know what either are. the black stuff is a crusty scab afaik and the yellow stuff looks like sawdust embedded in his feathers. questions abound. thank you all.
about a week ago i noticed one of the neighborhood roosters in my yard with what appeared to be black gunk all over his head (my first thought was someone did something cruel and dumped something hot on him but honestly idk). he looked wretched, but at the time i was not intending to make it my own problem, as i often do (LOL). however, a few days went by, and he went from perching on our fence and eating the stray cats' food to lying down in surrounding yards, looking--for all intents and purposes--completely dead. i kept coming to check him what i assumed would finally be his corpse, trash bag in hand, but each time, he was still alive. i ended up getting him some water to drink, and then some baby food to eat, and then one thing led to another and wouldn't you know it, now he's recovering (tentative) in my garage.
so far, i've followed the advice of the forums and a few friends who rescue ducks/chickens up north, and have flushed the maggots from his wound, sprayed with vetericyn, applied plain neosporin, given him water dosed with aspirin, and am feeding him baby food as often as i can. I think, in the grand scheme of things, he looks at least marginally better, and seems...stable? if completely pathetic (in an endearing way of course). he eats, but only if you dribble food into the side of his mouth with a syringe or hold a little bowl directly under his mouth, perhaps related to question 2 below.
naturally i have a litany of concerns, but a couple burning questions currently: 1) there is a hole in his head and i can see his skull. as far as i know, skin like...won't grow back over that? will he have an exposed skull for the rest of his little life? and 2) he's blind in one eye from a previous fight, and at this point, he's holding his head at an extreme angle--the good eye is facing up but he pretty consistently holds his head at like a 90 degree angle to the side. not sure if that's a result of his current pain levels or just the massive head trauma, etc; i didn't think his neck was like broken or anything because when i first saw he was injured i don't think he was holding his head to the side.
just sort of looking for some insight on the above, if i am cruelly keeping him alive for selfish desires to triumph over what seemed like certain death, etc etc. perhaps i am expecting too much too soon, and this is totally normal and everything is (relatively) fine. Any info you all can provide would be appreciated. also attaching two really poorly taken photos of his injury just after the first time i cleaned it on tuesday evening, versus this morning on Friday (pink towel photo). also, because i sent the initial photo to someone and they said it looked like the black stuff was sticktight fleas and the yellow stuff was eggs (?), please let me know if you know what either are. the black stuff is a crusty scab afaik and the yellow stuff looks like sawdust embedded in his feathers. questions abound. thank you all.
