Some of the Dinner Boys had got in with Spike and the Old Ladies. Spike and one of the Dinner Boys had got into a fight, and Spike was badly injured. DH was bringing him home.
He looked awful and he was starting to go into shock. I gave him some Nutridrops and then tried to bathe some of the blood off with cotton wool and warm water - I wanted ot try and find out whether it was just a nasty comb injury (which, because they bleed profusely, always look terrible, or to see whether there were any other injuries).
As I was bathing, I could see that Spike was slipping into shock again. I made up some water with some Avipro and a drop of Rescue Remedy. Being designed for birds, the Avipro had the dosage instructions on the tub; the Rescue Remedy didn't, so I decided one drop in 50ml of water would be more than enough. I wrapped him in a towel, I then tried syringing small quantities into his beak.
The first one dribbled out again. It's best to only syringe very small quantities, and to let the chook swallow themselves. This is because the windpipe is right next to the stomach pipe and if you put too much liquid in - or try and force it down - you can drown the bird by getting fluid into the lung.
He swallowed the second squirt, and the third. These were about 0.2ml each (the syringe happened to have markings). I decided to stop trying to get the blood off him, and to put him somewhere quiet so he could recover from the shock. I wrapped a second towel around him, and moved him into Tilda's pen. I covered the pen with a couple of towels so that it was slightly darkened in there. He's currently sitting in there still swaddled in towels.
Poor lad.
The attacker is currently in solitary cofinement in the cockerel run at the allotment.
I look like an extra in a Reservoir Dogs poster.
