Cockerel Limping

[BlueCamas]

My young d'Uccle cockerel is limping pretty badly. I have him in a crate in my mud room right now but when he was outside in the coop he would not get on the roost. I have inspected both legs pretty good and he has not shown any signs of pain when I poke, pull, and prod them. I don't see anything abnormal about his legs, but he is definitely in pain when he walks

He is still willing to walk around but is still limping really bad. I'm going to wash his feet off tonight to see if I can see anything else. Anybody have any advice? I'm stumped!

 

[chickenzoo]

Could be from injury, could be from parasites causing weakness, vitamin disorder or Mareks diease or similar. was he vaccinated as a chick? I would give poultry vitamins and vitamin E. I would worm with safeguard liquid goat wormer.... If no improvement then it may be illness, which Mareks has no cure.

 

[BlueCamas]

Could be from injury, could be from parasites causing weakness, vitamin disorder or Mareks diease or similar. was he vaccinated as a chick? I would give poultry vitamins and vitamin E. I would worm with safeguard liquid goat wormer.... If no improvement then it may be illness, which Mareks has no cure.

Thanks for your advice, I'll get him started on a little extra vitamins in his water.
He was never vaccinated but I really doubt it is illness as he is very well otherwise; eating, drinking, crowing

. No lethargic behavior either. What I don't understand is that if it is an injury then why can't I find anything on his foot/leg?

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

It may be somewhere up further on his legs. My cockerel favors his right leg. No external injury or slipped tendon. I can poke, squeeze do anything and he doesn't react. He just walks with a "swag" as we call it. He has been like this since we got him at 16 weeks. He was intended to be a meat bird from the lady I got him from, so he is already at SOP weight at 8 months. I think him being housed in a pen with no roost with 10 other cockerels(pen was 6'x10') may have had something to do with mine. His toes curl to the side instead of being straight. I am only going to use him for breeding with my egg/meat birds. I will not be selling his offspring in case he has a genetic flaw. But he gets around fine and has NO issue when it comes to mating. Just walks with that "I am real cool" limp. When he runs, he ends up hopping. It is quite comical.

 

[BlueCamas]

Well, I've looked at his foot toes and leg and I can still not find anything obviously wrong. It is a little limper than the other and he can't seem to keep it quite in place so I'm determining it's the chicken equivalent to a ripped MCL. I'd really like some other input though, he's a really nice boy and it would be a shame if I had to cull him. HELP!

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Side question, where did your BYC name originate? I saw a sign for a restaurant called BlueCamas just outside of Nisqualy Washington at exit 116 on I-5 and it made me think of you.

 

[BlueCamas]

A Blue Camas is just a common flower where I live.

Update on "Red Red", he is still limping badly but I've moved him back into the coop. He doesn't seem to be in pain and is the boss of the coop even though there is an older rooster in the coop as well. I still have no idea what happened and his limping does not seem to be improving. Even so, I've decided to just let him be and if he lives he lives. If his leg does not heal I won't be able to show him but either way I will be keeping him as a breeder as he's the best I have.

Here's a picture I took a few days ago. Notice his right foot is off the ground. Amazingly he can still roost though has a lot of trouble getting up.

 

[roostersandhens]

hope he is ok u could try bringing him to a vet depending how bad it is! he seems like a beutiful little boy!!