my poor cockerel...

[SunnyBaudelaire]

...a shiny handsome boy with a nice big comb and tail feathers the same metallic green as a Fiat Brava, who looks after his wives so well, has been attacked by a red kite.
His comb is now hanging off to the side, there is blood and scabs in the place where it was ripped from. He also cannot open one eye, and has lost his spurs. He seems to be in pain.
However he is still crowing and perching, and it is the third day.
Should I euthanize?

What does your vet say?

Is he eating/drinking? Have you taken him to the vet?

If you were going to euthinize surely 3 days ago would have been kinder? What did the vet advise? If you are nursing him yourself, you will have the best idea. If he is in pain but healing, keep him clean as best you can.

i cannot afford the vet sadly, not for a cockerel.
Yes I guess I should have done it three days ago.
DD bathed the place where the comb should be with salt water.
Not sure if he is eating and drinking but he is still crowing.....

It really shouldn't matter what kind of animal he is, he deserves to be treated for his injuries and pain. The best advice and treatment for him would be from a vet.

I'd usually isolate a poorly chicken, but I suppose the hens won't attack him as the only male. if he isn't going down hill, then he may be going to be ok. I don't think a vet would necessarily help - lots of antibiotics that would cure chickens would actually kill them so don't feel too bad about not calling the vet.

Poor handsome boy, if the girls aren't pecking at his injuries (hens can be horrible as you'll know) then I would leave him in with them so he doesn't have to re-assert his position later.

Chickens can cope with an astonishing amount, and if he is still crowing three days later then he obviously hasn't died from shock which would have been the first risk.

I'd cover his wounds in Gentian Violet (the antiseptic purple spray) and see how he does over the next few days, he is likely to be fairly bruised but if he's still standing up he's doing ok; he must be drinking I think or he'd be looking very unhappy on the bottom of the cage.

You might try putting some crushed garlic in his drinking water - it will help ward off infection - and you could also get in some high-protein food like sunflower hearts and mealworms - apart from he'll almost certainly love them, they will help with the energy his body needs for recovery.

Let us know how he gets on, I hate it when mine are ill .

Sorry, maybe I could have been clearer. Get advice or treatment from an AVIAN vet who knows which medication is suitable for chickens.

So, you have an animal with bits of flesh hanging off or missing and you've bathed him with salt water...?

basically soup, yes. but he seems well this morning, he is pecking about with the girls and crowing like normal.

You might think I sound harsh but I also have a dog and a pony and personally think I should not waste money on taking a cockerel to the vet.
I have some purple spray, soon, and will apply some later.

I mentioned this to my DH. He agrees with no point in going to the vet, use the spray. He grew up with hens so knows a lot about them.

If he's out with his girls as normal that sounds very promising which is great. He did really well to fend off the kite bless him, my cockerel is a complete wuss and would have run and hid behind the girls !

Is your cockerel less able to feel pain than your dog or your pony? Of course not, why would you go to a vet for them but not him? You have an animal that is suffering, it's your responsibility.

Do you know yet if he's eating (I assume he's drinking or he'd be dead by now ) Can you see the extent of the damage to his eye?

He will be eating sunshine if he is out pecking around with his ladies...and actually there is a limited amount a vet could do for the comb, usually they prefer to leave it heal naturally. Chickens often get damage to their combs - of varying degrees - and unless they get infected they just seal themselves with scabs and then mend slowly, which is why it's useful to boost the chicken with high-protein food as that helps both with tissue regeneration and immunity.

I've kept chickens for many years and the advice from several vets, including one poultry specialist, has always been that if the bird is mending on its own, or if you can treat it yourself (soup salt water is the standard advice for tissue injuries in chickens), you're usually doing as much as they could do anyway.

The only time a vet can "help" more is to put down a bird that is really in trouble, and actually at that point, if you can do it, it's actually kinder/faster to wring their neck because the injection to put them to sleep takes a long time to take effect because of the way their nervous system works.

So Sunny is doing all the right things given that he seems to be slowly getting back to his old self.

Thanks Soon i'm a vet specialising in exotics and have kept fancy poultry for over 30 years so pretty well aware of what can and can't be done.
For example the bird could be given pain relief as its injuries will be painful just as they would be in other species. I'm not sure what the rationale is for letting it suffer? It's woulds could be assessed and the need for antibiotics evaluated, it's eye could be checked because if injured or ulcerated as the OP suggests the bird could end up blind or with a chronic ocular infection. Nowhere does the OP say that she knows that her cockerel has eaten - in fact after 3 days she still didn't know. Chronic pain, the associated stress and reduced feed intake could predispose to crop infections and impactions.
You wouldn't treat a dog like this, why is it acceptable for any other sentient creature?

Oh and you are categorically wrong about euthanasia. All of the research indicates that overdose of barbiturates is much more humane in birds than cervical dislocation and this method is not recommended without prior stunning unless in extremis. Routine slaughter by 'wringing a birds neck' may be more convenient and cheaper for you, but don't kid yourself it's more humane or that it's in the bird's best interests

Thank you for putting me in my place so succinctly sunshine I was simply trying to help the OP based on what I have been told by my vets over the years. Clearly they have less relevant experience than you do.

Sunshine, thank you for commenting from a professional point of view. I didn't know how many times to say "see a vet".

I understand that many vets don't have specialist knowledge and that can be extremely frustrating for chicken owners but I don't think that's an excuse not to try and find a suitably qualified vet, or offer advice that is incorrect.
None of us know the extent of the damage, whether this bird is eating etc, so we can't make assumptions.

I'm still in the dark as to why it's acceptable to let a wounded bird suffer but not a wounded dog or pony??

I think if you choose to keep animals, you should find a vet who could treat them before they ever need one. No animal should be left in pain.

I don't think you can say a chicken is the same as a dog or cat at all. More like a fish in terms of feeling pain. Look at the size of their brain compared to a dog. I believe that most of their movement is generated at spinal cord level without much cortical input.

They also heal incredibly well after injury, usually without antibiotics. I have also had badly injured cockerels before who have recovered from what looked like potentially fatal injuries, one with an eye swollen shut who is now back to normal. Ethically I would rather help more hens who might be culled after intensive farming than spend an excessive amount on a vet for one.
It is clear that Sunny cares about her cockerel.

I would make sure he is eating though. I've used yoghurt, scrambled egg or warm mush made with layers to tempt my sick birds before and have used a pipette with sugar water if I don't think they're drinking.
Where I live there is no way the vets are interested in a single sick chicken and less chance that they would know what to do to help.
Home remedies have therefore been the way to go.

Sunshine- I'm really interested in the euthanasia question. How do you find a vein for access to give barbiturates? Isn't that distressing for the bird? When I've had to euthanize a bird ( which isn't that often as I'm presiding over a veritable residential home for elderly hens at the moment). I take the birds out of sight and sound of the others and I handle the bird gently, firmly, calmly and do it quickly.
Is that really worse than taking it to the vet which would be incredibly stressful for it, as would finding a vein, I suspect?
Of course I'm sure as you are a vet you can give the ideal care to your own birds!

You can choose to believe what you like View That the moon is made of green cheese for example, but this doesn't make it true or even likely. What are your beliefs relating to animal pain based on? Because it's not the evidence. Research has shown that fish feel pain in a way that is similar to humans (and indeed all vertebrate mammals including birds) So making arbitrarary discrepancies based on beliefs about different species is unhelpful, and the reason that birds and other non-traditional pets suffer significantly at the hands of their 'loving' owners.

It's also worth remembering that you have a legal duty of care to seek medical care under the animal welfare act - legislation that was brought in exactly to protect against this kind of uninformed nonsense.

Depending on the size of the bird (a polish versus a bantam for example) the approach to euthanasia would likely be different. In larger birds the leg vein or right jugular are used (and should be no more stressful than any other kind of handling) in small birds they are usually anaesthetised by gas and the drugs given directly into the heart, wing vein or jugular. It's pretty simple if you know what you're doing and certainly better than cervical dislocation

Why do you use the right jugular sunshine ? Just curious. Also, can chickens get bumble foot? I'm sure my parents ducks are prone to this but have no idea of the aetiology.

Must be fascinating, exotics. I have lots of friends who are vets and when i ask them about lizards and stuff they never really say much. They are farm vets in a rural part of the country though, perhaps they don't see much exotic stuff? What do you classify as exotic..?

Well thank you Sunshine for responding to a genuine question in such a disparaging manner. Please could you refer me to some of the research you are talking about because I am genuinely interested.