goose stepping rooster?

[socks]

Hi, my 4-5 year old rooster has been kept by friends for a few months and I will be getting him back tonight. They pointed out that he now has a distinct goose step and we are wondering what this might be from. I realize I did see the beginnings of this awhile ago.
He has had foot issues in that as a young lad (7 weeks) a raccoon got a couple of his toes (don't ask-shudder). He seemed to adapt well to that so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. He is, I guess kind of old. Could this be arthritis?

I've also seen mention of lice which I will check for and bumblefoot but from what I can see checking the net in general this goose stepping seems a fairly common thing. (There are several youtube videos as it is amusing if you don't think it is a health isssue.)

So....is this just something roosters do?

thanks for any help.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

What do you mean by goose stepping? Is he waddling or hopping along, like a strut? Sorry, I'm a little confused. My geese didn't do any fancy foot work, just waddled along.
I would check his feet over real well, if you find nothing I wouldn't worry about it. My rooster gives funny little skips and hops while he's walking sometimes, like he's showing off (which he is, he's VERY proud of himself).

 

[socks]

sorry, goose stepping as in the classic Nazi march with legs held high up.
We finally got a look at the bottom of his feet and I'm sad to say it is looking like bumblefoot. Now I'm going to have to research that to see just how bad that can be because frankly.....I can't see myself being able to 'operate'.....

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Oh, duh! Ok, my rooster does that, but if his feet look bad......
Bumblefoot isn't that bad to treat. The one time I had to do it, I soaked the foot in Epsom salt and scrubbed all the dirt off so I could see exactly what's going on. Find the "bumble" and cut it open and remove the core (it looked like a brown, dried up piece of corn). Soak it some more to clean out the wound, dry off the foot, put some triple antibiotic cream in the hole and wrapped it with vet wrap to keep it clean. I soaked a couple more times and applied more TAC just to be sure it was good and clean. It healed well so I must've done something right Good luck!

 

[socks]

thanks, realized the only way I would really know is if I clean his feet as the just might have been dirt that looked like the dark circles.