Goodbye Sid Vicious

 

What does the above photo have to do with my rooster, Sid Vicious?

Or how about this photo?

 

Well……………………….this morning, I was feeding my chickens and Ebony, one of the chicks from last Fall’s hatch was showing me a lot of interest. She is the little black hen with an Ameracauna as her Mom and Sid Vicious as her Dad. Because she was raised by Mrs. Cotton, my Japanese Silky hen, she’s always been shy and skittish around me, but in the last few days she’s been following me around and trying to get close to me.

So I thought that I would try picking her up. And I did. While I was cooing to her and petting her neck, all of a sudden………………..WHAM!!!!!!!!!

A flash of black and gold, a feeling like a bowling ball hit my right arm, and a sharp pain in my forearm! I looked down and saw a hole filling up with blood starting to spread down my arm. I was so p*ssed!!!!!!!!!!

Sid Vicious had attacked me! I grabbed the rake and chased him all around the coop and the orchard. I was able to whack him once, but he was just too fast.

After a few times of playing ‘round and round the mulberry bush’, my adrenaline slowed down and I went inside to clean up my arm, which was gushing blood by then. My twinlings were inside and shocked at what they saw, but weren’t all that surprised as we’ve been having a serious issue with Sid and his aggression towards us over the past few weeks. The kids can’t even go outside to play when he’s free-ranging without carrying a broom, a stick or a rake to fend him off. And he will run after them, for quite a while, too.

With me, he had been showing respect because he did come after me once before, and I immediately gave him the boot, which sent him flying to the other side of the coop. That was last summer and he hadn’t tested me since then. Except this morning was a cheap shot, fighting dirty, not even giving me a chance to fight back. He attacked me with my back turned. The evil beast!

He gave me two puncture wounds. This one on the top of my right arm.

And this deeper one on the bottom of my right forearm. This one is the most painful.

(Oh look! It’s a perfect Macro Monday shot. Not! lol!)

I wasn’t planning on going to the doctor because I figured it was just a flesh wound, but then my twinlings noticed that Sid Vicious was missing a spur. All that was left was a bloody stump.

         His other spur was intact, but covered in blood.

                               My blood.

We figured that the intact spur was the one that stabbed me on the top of my arm, while the broken off spur was the one that punctured the bottom of my arm. My twinlings helped me look everywhere for the broken off spur, to no avail. So, they brought up the fact that it might be embedded in my arm!!

It sure did feel like it, too. After the natural pain killing anesthetic wore off from my adrenaline, I was surprised at how painful and aching that arm was becoming. I wasn’t able to flex or twist my wrist without pain and we could feel a ridge under the skin.

So I called our local doctor to ask if I should come in and the nurse didn’t even know what a spur was (“Does a spur grow from a chicken's head?…..WTH??!!) or how a rooster might attack (“Does it peck at you”?……. Sheesh!), and they don’t have an x-ray machine. So the nurse told me to head to the emergency room.

So, a few hours later, after some x-rays, some antibiotics, and a tetanus shot, the medical personnel told me that it appears that my rooster gave me a puncture wound that probably caused some minor tissue damage to my muscles, tendons or both, and sent me on my way.

Unfortunately, this news doesn’t bode well for Sid Vicious. I was planning on trimming his spurs this weekend before this happened, but this situation made me realize that he’s just too unsafe and unpredictable and cannot be trusted around my kidlets, especially since I’ve seen him go after them. I am reminded that my friends, family, or anyone that comes to visit could be seriously hurt by him, too. If I have a petsitter come to take care of my chickens while I am away, how do I know that Sid won’t attack them?

Seems that Sid Vicious has lived up to his name.

Maybe I should have named him Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers or Puddin’ instead……

Sadly, my handsome roo must go. Hopefully someone will want a beautiful pure-bred Golden-Laced Bearded Polish Rooster for their breeding program.

He has left behind 4 of his own progeny here. Two roosters that we gave away, the little black hen that we kept, Ebony, and our newest chick, Pat Benatar……who we are hoping is a little hen, too. (That’s Pat peeking out from behind Mrs. Cotton. Liza Minelli is eating and Matilda is behind Mrs. Cotton)

Pat will be the last of Sid’s kids born here.

And this is where Sid will safely stay until someone comes to take him to his new home.

(I have since placed a piece of plywood overhead for shade and Sid has food and water now. Unlike the typical human prisoner, though, he’d love to be fed only bread and water.)

Goodbye Sid Vicious. You handsome devil.