Poor Berkeley

Berkeley a couple of months ago on the hen house.

Yesterday was a bad day in my rooster, Berkley's life. I came home in the afternoon to find that Berkeley's right wing was basically hanging limp from his body. His feathers were scraping along the ground. He was slow and out of it, not his usual chipper, curious rooster self. It made me want to throw up, especially when he stepped on the end of the limp wing with his feet. Neither the husband nor I handled the situation very well at first. Let's just say that it took us a little while to get on the same page. I hunted around a bit online for some idea of what to do...I came across this post on a gardening website which basically described the same thing happening to another chicken. The picture of the chicken on that post is pretty much what Berkeley looked like. (I decided this morning not to put any pictures of Berkeley's injury on this posting, I still don't know what is going to end up happening with him, so it doesn't seem right.)

I ended up I heading down to a local farm supply store to buy vet tape, which is basically an ace bandage type of product that will stick to itself but not to anything else. While I was gone, the husband and stepson (who had to be picked up for a visit in the middle of all of the chaos - part of the reason we did not handle things well right away) set up an extra cage we have for Berkeley. It is necessary for Berkeley to be apart from his seven hens right now to prevent any kind of pecking. He is still right next to their coop, so he can hear and see them and they him. He has food and water and hay on his floor to keep him cozy. We wrapped his wing to his body last night, our goal was to try [gently] put it in it's natural position and then bind it to his body using the tape. We had to be careful to wrap the tape beneath his good wing so he would still be able to move it. We are assuming right now that his wing could be broken because it did not feel like it was dislocated when we were wrapping him, maybe a hairline fracture of the bone near the joint. The other more likely possibility is that there is a torn ligament at the joint. Either way, having it held to his body with the tape should keep the pain to a minimum and will keep him from further injuring it.

This morning when I checked on him, I noticed his wrapping had slipped. So we re-wrapped his wing to his body, this time a bit more thoroughly, and let him try to walk around with it on. It was clear right away that it wouldn't be wise to let him free-range with the tape on, he was having a hard time keeping his balance. It actually kind of broke my heart to watch him fall over. He would very likely be spotted as easy prey by a hawk flying overhead who noticed his gimpy little walk.

Honestly, this situation is tougher than I could have thought. Right now, my job is only part-time, so I'm not making what I used to. The husband is a general contractor, I don't need to explain to you what the housing market is like, it has been tough everywhere. Financially, even though there is light at the end of the tunnel, we are still having to be extremely careful with our spending. We just don't have the extra money to take a rooster to a vet, it's simply not an option. That's hard to say, I don't want it to be true, but it is. Our plan right now is to give him a few more days in his "bachelor pad" to begin to [hopefully] heal. If he doesn't improve, we are going to have to face the other option. Believe me, that makes me sad. I said even before we brought home our 8 little chicks last spring that I didn't want to grow attached to them as pets. I don't think of them as pets, but my fondness for Berkeley has grown. He has always stuck out the most to me, if we end up losing him, it will be hard.

The other consideration we have right now is the fact that even if he heals, he may still not have full use of his wing. Our chickens are not protected at all times from predators. At any time, a hawk could pick one of them off, or a coyote or weasle could get in and take one. So far we have been very lucky not to have these things happen. Our fence is only 4 feet high, but it seems to have discouraged the coyotes that have been coming through our area from bothering our chickens. Over the summer, one of our neighbor's chickens was killed by a weasle, a viscious animal that is able to squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter, I felt lucky then that it didn't happen to one of my birds. I have seen hawks fly over the garden many times, and ironically I was always proud of how Berkeley called out with clucks to the hens to take cover. When he warns them, they run into the coop and also tuck themselves closely to the greenhouse...he is the reason none of them have been attacked. I don't want to make him an easy target, especially with his protective nature.

Obviously I don't know how Berkeley's injury occured. I can speculate that he may have gotton into a scuffle with a predator bird, I'm not sure. I've read that roosters will put themselves in harm's way to save the rest of the flock. If he heals, even partially, I'm worried that he's always going to be an easy target. This is a part of raising chickens that I didn't anticipate being so rough.