Anyone have experience w/ strange leg position in sick bird?

I know, I know- weird subject line but I can't phrase it any better.

Here's the situation- I have a year old barn yard mix rooster I've been treating for a wound for about two weeks now. He's got a HUGE swollen hole on his neck- it looks like an abscess that has split, so I've been treating it accordingly. He's not eating a lot, as I'm sure the lump the size of a kiwi is quite distressing.

In the past three days, he's taken to extending one leg out behind him when he's laying down. I can re-position it and he seems to have strength and control of the leg, but within a few hours he'll have it stretched out again. At first I thought he may have injured it jumping off the bathroom counter, but he can stand on it- although he's very wobbly in general.

Of course, I am haunted by the marek's pictures I've seen of the splayed legs and I'm wondering if any one has seen that sort of neurological behavior in anything other than marek's disease.

Any info greatly appreciated.

 

Awesome- thank you so much, ChickensAreSweet! Exactly the kind of info I needed and my time to google has been non-existant. I started him on Rooster Booster, suspecting that it may be a vitamin deficiency since it wasn't a primary symptom in his condition. Once again- THANK YOU!

 

Hello! He's on penicillin procaine G injectable right now and I'm treating his wound w/ vetericyn. When it was first really goopy, I used antibiotic powder to dry it out. I scrubbed and cleaned the wound w/ betadine the first few days, but then the bird seemed worse for all the interference, so I've been providing supportive care and antibiotics in the meantime. I am now on the hunt for a way to identify if I am in fact dealing w/ an abscess or a tumor that burst. *shrug* I know I'm tempted to tie it off and see if I can just cut the thing off eventually but it's huge and it's on his neck *sigh*