6 months old cockerel, suddenly weak legs...

Thanks a lot.

dawg53, you know, his brother actually got the bandy legs later on - as a chick and up to about 4 months old he seemed just fine, but when we let them out in the yard at around 4.5 months he was like that. Still is, not so bad as at first, he can do absolutely everything but his legs are still bent.

This one just suddenly started to walk like in slow motion and the next day or two was unable to stand up anymore.

seminolewind, thanks so much, I too hope it's "something else", but I am kinda ready to accept my fate also, why not.
 
Went to the vet's last night, at this point he's ruling out salmonella (would have to be in a much worse condition) and malnutrition (since he's been on vitamins for these 2 weeks) and suspecting Marek's - my boy has gained 100 g during the 2 weeks (he weighed in at 800 grams at the beginning, now 900 g), eating and pooping well, but given that the problem persists AND that we did lose some of our approx. 6 months old Shamo/Aseel babies due to weight loss (and no other visible symptoms) recently, he's thinking Mareks. I wasn't ready to sacrifice this one for an autopsy to see what's going on.
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Maybe I'll regret it sorely but he's been at home with us for these 2 weeks, and the other ones are at the farm with everyone else too, so there has been exposure already. We're going to finally do an autopsy for the next one that passes away, vet told us to store it in the fridge (not freezer), they'll look at it at the clinic first and then, if they consider it necessary, they will send organs to a state university just across in Italy (so it's not going to cost us an arm and a leg), and today we're also collecting and bringing poop samples from the ones that have been losing weight, to see what else it could be.

Boy, these decisions can be hard, but truly this boy doesn't seem ready to leave us and I can't do it to him.
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I thought I'd update this thread, especially since around Christmas a little miracle happened!

First of all, my boy (Pawlu is his name, a Maltese version of Paul
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) continues to regain strength in his legs and control of them; if before even one wing was a bit droopy, then now he can stand (!) with both wings nicely collected as they should be, and he can STAND, and, more recently, instead of stumbling around chaotically flapping his wings, he can now nicely hop on one leg from one side of his large box to another. AND, this past month he TWICE somehow jumped out of the box in my absence and I found him on the floor near his roommate Indy's crate (who has a different problem). I just cannnot believe how far he has gone in his recovery. For most of the time he stands now, sometimes on one leg (ironically, the one which has a tumour/cyst? on the side, just above the hairless/scaly part), sometimes on both.

Now, since from the start there were these two tumours/cysts (?), I was worried as they were gradually turning into a very hard substance under the skin, sort of like a piece of dry wood. One on his chest and the other one, as mentioned, on his leg. They were/are not really attached to anything, just there under his skin.

Around Christmas I picked him up for the n'th time to examine him, and I noticed that one of the cysts is sort coming out through his skin - it looked like an old wound healing, with the cyst being rejected by the body and the skin closed and healed underneath it. I didn't help remove the cyst all at once, since there was no open wound or blood or anything, I just left it there to continue. I think during the day Pawlu also picks on it and maybe that has helped to get it out and off of his body. Practically the next day I found part of the cyst, hard as a rock, with feathers that were growing on the skin it was under, in his box. I examined him and the skin had healed and there was no sign of anything at all. There is still some part of it remaining, but I'm not going to interfere with the process. The one on his leg is still there, under his skin.

When I get back my regular camera which can take normal pics, I will take a pic of the cyst as it's on my desk now.

As for any treatment, I have been giving him vitamins in water (but not every day now) and also vitamin E in a ball of bread sometimes.

Here is a recent pic of my Pawlu.

He is a very talkative, intelligent boy, and he LOVES a nice massage - he stretches his neck on my knee and closes his eyes as I massage his back and legs.

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Here he is with Chilly, one of our dogs:
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What happened to the pictures of the leg? I was going to say that I think it does not look so good. I would put him on some strong antibiotic and hope for the best. Has the vet seen it since?
 
Sorry, pics of the leg? There isn't anything terribly wrong with his leg, maybe you're referring to the other thread I created about the very bad infection in the leg of another chickie of ours? Yup, that one doesn't look so good, but Pawlu's is ok, no infection or anything, just the cyst on the side of it. He can use it, though in the pic he's seen standing on one leg (he still prefers that).
 

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