Rooster walking like a penguin

No, I do not think he was vaccinated for Marek's disease. I got him at 8 weeks and I have never had him vaccinated for anything. I don't know if the original owner had him vaccinated for anything. Yes, as time has gone by I do see that his left leg is giving him the trouble. He can't seem to pull it forward or lift it very high. Maybe it is Marek's or maybe he just broke it and I couldn't tell until now. Either way, is there some way I should be treating that? Should I tape the leg or something?

No, I don't think he has any Shamo in him. I can see now it's clearly some sort of an injury.

I will try giving him some vitamins in his water, as well.

Thanks for the support, friends!

I just looked up Marek's disease. I don't think that's it either. He has been around my other rooster and my 3 quail for weeks and none of them have gotten sick. I guess it must be a broken leg Well, at least I'm pretty sure what it is now. Hopefully he is not permanently lame, but most likely he is. Perhaps I can tape it or something to at least aid his walking. After tomorrow he will be my only chicken and I love him. I have 3 quail that will keep him company until the spring when I will try again. I think this time I will hatch Araucanas instead of ordering chicks. Thanks again for all of your suggestions and advice!

I just taped his left leg and it's totally helping! Hopefully, in a few weeks we will see some improvement!

Vitamins with trace minerals are good to try. He could have a skeletal or leg bone deformity that is causing him to walk and sit that way. It can be common in broiler birds, but also can occur with layers. I do hope your splinting him helps. He looks like a sweet rooster. Here is a link or two about leg bone deformities: (Be sure to click on each page to enlarge it)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1790586/
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1051/leg-health-in-large-broilers
http://nhjy.hzau.edu.cn/kech/synkx/dong/2bao/Bone disorders in poultry.pdf

How did things turn out for this rooster? I have 2 young roosters that are the same way right now. They hatched May of this year. They were fine one day and then ended up like this. Not sure what to do for them. They are alert, eating, drinking, pooping and their legs seem to be ok they just walk like penguins.

I have a 5 month old brahma that just started doing this. We have wormed and treated for mites. No improvement. He is eating, drinking and crowing. Just can't work it out. As a youngster his toe was broken the lady said where I got him. It was literally overnight with the penguin walk. Hope someone knows what it is.

The 3 roosters we had were ok at first but even eating and drinking like normal they started to waste away. They were literally feathers and bones. I wormed them and gave them extra vitamins eventually they started to move around less and became listless. We unfortunately ended up culling them.

kburden said:

The 3 roosters we had were ok at first but even eating and drinking like normal they started to waste away. They were literally feathers and bones. I wormed them and gave them extra vitamins eventually they started to move around less and became listless. We unfortunately ended up culling them.

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thanks for letting me know. I have seen posts about this, but no answers. I would love to know what it is.

Jacqdiva said:

thanks for letting me know. I have seen posts about this, but no answers. I would love to know what it is.

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I would to. I was scared that it was something contagious also. Started out with one then two and then a week later another one. So far knock on wood everyone else seems healthy.

I will chime in too, I have just had to cull my beautiful Golden Wyandotte hen this evening after the same story that you tell. She was 12 months old, recently started laying with the arrival of our southern spring and overnight turned into a penguin. We soaked in warm water, did an internal inspection for egg bound and found nothing but a puffy abdomen that seemed to hang out the front of our new penguin - we suspected some gut infection; the vet concurred and prescribed abitbiotics and a course of worming medicine. Neither helped. We put her on probiotics and seaweed vitamin supplements too. She became our pet, because she no longer scratched she was given full access to the garden. She would happily sit as close as she could to the other hens on the other side of the wire and chip away at the grass. It has been over a month now and after some intial thoughts she might be trending upwards we had to accept she was in a slow decline. Through this who period she has continued to lay eggs every two days and with a few exceptions has had normal stools. Today her vent/intestines prolapsed so that a small soft shell was ejected along with 10 cm of innards. She looked miserable and we finally despatched her. I noticed this morning she was twitching her left leg upwards, as though to scratch her face, but she could not get it more than a few cm off the ground. I see in other blogs they talked off puffy abdomens filled with fluid that they used needle/syringes to extract with positive outcomes.
Originally Posted by Mayflower girl


One of my Rhode Island Reds was recently walking like a penguin. After a couple of weeks getting worse, she finally got to where she could not stand up and collapsed at the water can. Did some checking on BYC and here is what I did. First, I didn't think she had a egg inside because the large bulb between her legs felt like a water balloon. I sat her in a bucket of warm water for 15 minutes and that really relaxed her. I had a small syringe and put her on my lap and started inserting the needle and withdrew yellow fluid from the "balloon" - I lost count after 50 needle sticks! Fluid was not smelly or anything and sick chick did not seem to be in any discomfort. I thought "what have I got to lose - she was probably going to die if I did nothing". Most of the needle holes were leaking the fluid. Most of the fluid was out of her at this point and she was able to walk around and leaked fluid all day. That evening I soaked cotton balls with antiseptic from our medicine cabinet and quarantined her. I put poultry antibiotics in her water for 4 or 5 days and she had a hefty appetite. That was about 3 weeks ago and sick chick is getting fat and sassy. She thinks she deserves special treatment now and demands to be hand fed her morning scratch. She is very tame all of a sudden and is doing just great. Well worth the effort. If the fluid returns, I have since purchased larger syringes so I won't have to stick her as much. Hope this helps anybody with a sick chick that walks like a penguin.