3 month old rooster - is he weird?

[AnneCanne]

I have a 3 month old male orpington that I got a as a chick from Mt Healthy hatchery (along with 2 female orpingtons).

He seems XXL to me, especially compared to the buff orpington. His hatchmate that is also a laced is pretty jumbo sized too though, so maybe just jumbo genes.

What makes him seem off is all of a sudden (3 weeks ago) he started walking all wobbly, with tiny tremors in his legs. He doesn’t lose his balance or trip, but walks like a really old man whose legs are threatening to give out. I thought maybe vitamin deficiency so I gave him some rooster booster in water (he wouldn’t drink it), so I put some vitamin top dressing on food. I think he ate some of that, but zero improvement.

He’ll also lay down a lot - way more than the others his age, and seems like it’s bc he’s worn out- he will just plop down while the others are still excited about something. He still sleeps on the ground at night too.

He started trying to crow about 3 weeks ago, but yesterday started to just wheeze without any sound when he tried to crow. He’s not been excessive in his crowing practice. It has been windy- not sure if that could be the cause of his lost voice?

His feathers also look… loose. Like not dense and just fluffed up? Hard to explain but just doesn’t look right. Both him and the female laced orpington chick have this loose feather look.

His tail feathers are rounded over. The female laced orp has the same rounded tail feathers too. The other 2 that are same age (buff orp and lav austrolorp) do not have rounded tail feathers.

No other symptoms (him or others) - eating, pooping, interacting with other chickens, etc.

Is this normal? If not, what could I be looking at here?

 

[nuthatched]

I definitely wouldn't use him for beeeding, something isn't right.
I honestly would put him down.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Huh. That is odd. He doesn’t look like an orpington to me (I’m no expert-I’ve had a few australorps and raised some lavenders but I don’t generally keep many for long cause they’re not my cup of tea) so take that with a grain of salt. Your description of his behavior makes it sound like he’s a meat bird. I hope you will get some better help than me but I will follow along because I think there is definitely something off.

 

[AnneCanne]

I have 3 older Orps, 2 that I had from day 1. Not an expect by any stretch, but these 2 don’t seem the same.

Both the 2 jumbo orps looked off from day 1 to me. I had not ordered from Mt Healthy before and was very disappointed - lost 2 chicks during shipping and thought these 2 wouldn’t make it to the next morning. But they seemed to bounce back and thrive until they both just started looking… weird.

Re being meat birds, don’t they eat non-stop though? These guys go through food pretty slowly actually. Esp for how big they are.

I’ll try to figure out how to upload a video to show his oddball steps.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Re being meat birds, don’t they eat non-stop though?

Oh interesting point. I don’t know for sure.

 

[nuthatched]

Huh. That is odd. He doesn’t look like an orpington to me (I’m no expert-I’ve had a few australorps and raised some lavenders but I don’t generally keep many for long cause they’re not my cup of tea) so take that with a grain of salt. Your description of his behavior makes it sound like he’s a meat bird. I hope you will get some better help than me but I will follow along because I think there is definitely something off.

He's gold laced chocolate, Mt Healthy has them, they're quite pretty.

I have 3 older Orps, 2 that I had from day 1. Not an expect by any stretch, but these 2 don’t seem the same.

Both the 2 jumbo orps looked off from day 1 to me. I had not ordered from Mt Healthy before and was very disappointed - lost 2 chicks during shipping and thought these 2 wouldn’t make it to the next morning. But they seemed to bounce back and thrive until they both just started looking… weird.

Re being meat birds, don’t they eat non-stop though? These guys don’t go through food pretty slowly actually. Esp for how big they are.

I’ll try to figure out how to upload a video to show his oddball steps.

Upload to YouTube and link back.
He's deformed, not a meat bird.
Unfortunately , losing chicks when shipping is common and not the hatcheries fault.

 

[AnneCanne]

OK hopefully this works...

It was windy when I took these yesterday, so all the surrounding movement makes it hard to see the shakes. When his feathers aren't blowing around and the ground is still, it's even more noticeable.

As I watched this video after I took it, my daughter pointed out that the female laced orp that steps in front of the camera in the this video does the floppy/shaky foot thing when she walks too. It's not as dramatic, but you can see it a bit in this clip:

The buff one is the orp that is the same age. The size difference is significant.

 

[AnneCanne]

here's one more from Jun 1, when I first noticed the wobble, showing him just plopping down.

I have checked the bottoms of his feet for any injuries, cuts, bumblefoot, etc and found nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[LaFleche]

To me it looks like the bones and tendons of their legs were unable to keep up with their unusual growth.

I would weigh them to monitor their weight gain and feed them some brewers yeast (vitamin B complex) and calcium +vitamin D to see if it helps.

They seem to have a similar problem to what meat birds are dealing with.

Some breeds are known have growth spurts at a certain age but Orpington are usually not among them.

 

[AnneCanne]

To me it looks like the bones and tendons of their legs were unable to keep up with their unusual growth.

I would weigh them to monitor their weight gain and feed them some brewers yeast (vitamin B complex) and calcium +vitamin D to see if it helps.

They seem to have a similar problem to what meat birds are dealing with.

Some breeds are known have growth spurts at a certain age but Orpington are usually not among them.

Thanks for confirming I’m not losing it lol. I kept thinking it looks like a growth spurt that went wrong, just based on timing of it all.

On weight monitoring - am I watching for too much or too little weight gain at this point?