Hurt leg question

[Chris Herzog]

Guys
I have a roo about 7-8 months old that has been in my coop with 6 pullets about the same age. He is the only roo with these girls but there are other roos in the pens next to this guy. They all have 1/2" x 1/2" hardware cloth between the pens. These s birds are also allowed to free range in my yard. Anyway last weekend I noticed my roo limping. After a few days had gone by and nothing seemed to change with his condition I looked him over but could not see any marks, cuts or anything obvious. I put him in a pen by himself and gave him a few days (since Monday) to rest.

Well nothing has changed. I have looked him over a few times now and feel that the pain is in the leg between his ankle and knee. There is no swelling or marks and I can move his knee and ankle with out him making a fuss but if I touch his leg in this area he does not like it at all.

Any thoughts on what it could be and what if anything I should do for him?

Chris

 

[dawg53]

From my experience with roosters and foot/leg problems, they are notorious for jumping down off high places and injuring their legs, showboating with the hens. Lower roosts and eliminating those high places they can jump down from will help. Since you have roosters next to his pen, it's possible he couldve jumped up and somehow injured his leg when he landed.
Young and even older roosters dont like to be confined to a cage for rest and relaxation, not like hens. Roosters have one thing on their mind...hens. Normally you can cage a hen for rest and relaxation, giving time for the injury to heal. You dont want them up walking around causing more serious injury to the leg. Of course you provide them with feed and water while they're caged. Sometimes it takes about a week or longer for the injury to heal, depending on the severity of the injury. Sometimes it takes weeks, months or never. I've never had luck treating leg injuries with roosters. I've even tried putting the cage they're in with the hens in the chicken pen...it didnt work. All he did was jump around in the cage trying to get out. I've even tried putting a hen in a cage next to a rooster in a cage while they were both in the garage, same thing happened. Putting a hen in with the rooster didnt work neither. All these things might work for you though, these are just my experiences with roosters. The key is rest and relaxation giving TIME for the injury to heal. You can add vitamin B complex to his feed, it may help speed up recovery. Just crush a few tablets into powder and sprinkle it on top of his feed to eat. Do this for about 5 days. Remove him from the cage and see if there's improvement. If not, put him back in the cage for a week and continue the vitamin B complex like before.
I've had an excellent success rate for treating hens in this manner. Roosters not so good. I havnt had any problems like this in awhile after lowering roosts and eliminating high places where they can jump down. Good luck.