Giant feet and legs

[BrendaLou]

One of my new flock of 15 has huge feet and thick legs. She is a leghorn and when i got her i assumed she was just a week older than the other tiny chicks i bought. She grew much faster than the others and when the other chicks still had pleanty of headroom in the brooder she had to bend down. Her feet and legs are huge. I've had the chickens for 13 weeks now and she hardly moves. She CAN fly down froom the house to the run but lately stays in the house. Her legs have always seemed very very weak. Any help or answers? She is twice the size of the other chickens.

 

[RonoKT]

Sounds like she is a meat bird not a leghorn.

 

[BrendaLou]

Sounds like she is a meat bird not a leghorn.

That actually never occurred to me but you may be right.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi @BrendaLou Welcome To BYC

Can you post some photos or a video of her?

From your description, I do tend to agree with @RonoKT that she may be a meat bird.

Some people do keep them past butchering age and they will lay eggs when mature, but you will need to watch and limit her feed.

If she is hardly able to move now and has weak legs, she may not make it much longer. Meat birds can have severe leg issues because the are designed to just eat and gain weight.

You can try a few things to see if you can get her moving. Place food and water as far away from the coop as possible so she has to walk to get to it, but she will most likely camp out by it most of the day.

Let us know how she's doing.