Is bumble foot common? Worried about rooster!

[azygous]

My GLW Su-su has been on daily aspirin for a year. I don't know what's causing her leg to be lame, but she's almost eight years old. Chickens get arthritis, too.

 

[shannon84]

My GLW Su-su has been on daily aspirin for a year. I don't know what's causing her leg to be lame, but she's almost eight years old. Chickens get arthritis, too.

I'm thinking about giving him cherries (no pit of course) because I read it's a anti inflammatory . But I'll still do aspirin with it.... I'll do more research on cherries first. Poor hen, sounds pretty healthy though to be 8!

 

[azygous]

A simple thing such as a tiny aspirin has performed a transformation on Su-su. A year ago, she would sit in one spot all day, moving appeared too painful. Inactivity isn't good for chickens, just as it's not good for humans. And remaining in one spot made her very vulnerable to bullies and feather pickers.

Lately, I've also been giving her a B-complex tablet each day. This has noticeably strengthened the lame leg so that now she's moving about much more than she sits.

 

[shannon84]

A simple thing such as a tiny aspirin has performed a transformation on Su-su. A year ago, she would sit in one spot all day, moving appeared too painful. Inactivity isn't good for chickens, just as it's not good for humans. And remaining in one spot made her very vulnerable to bullies and feather pickers.

Lately, I've also been giving her a B-complex tablet each day. This has noticeably strengthened the lame leg so that now she's moving about much more than she sits.

I'll pick up some b complex today, certain mg? My roosters moves a lot . But also falls. Poor girl I wonder what caused her lameness. My dominant hen loves to peak at my roosters comb when she's bored so I'm glad he is moving.... I hate that.... He let's her do it too. She plucks all my other hens neck feathers in the summer time. So she's walking around looking like a Topiarie bush. I wasn't sure if too much activity or no activity would do harm. My mom said the same as you about inactivity. ..

 

[azygous]

All B vitamins are water soluble so it's not possible to overdose. I use the Walmart store brand.

This year I finally identified all my chronic feather pickers and either moved them to separate housing or installed pinless peepers on them. Four hens out of fifteen are chronic pickers. This is the first time my roosters both have remained gorgeous with their newly grown plumage following molt.

 

[shannon84]

 

[shannon84]

Still mad at me obviously. I was trying to give him blueberries for inflammation

 

[azygous]

Trying to treat an aggressive rooster is, not impossible, but pretty darned close. This is the first on this thread I've noticed you having this problem with him. It's much more than just trying to handle a skittish chicken. Trying to handle him and feed him and give him medication can actually cause more stress in your relationship with him. And since he's probably well set in his ways, it may be impossible to change his behavior.

My guess as to his balance problem after watching the video, is that he probably had a head injury early as a chick, and now has to cope with mild brain damage. He may not actually be in pain.

One way to tell if a chicken is in pain is to watch him for a while. A chicken will hold a sore foot up against his belly or peck at it. If both legs are painful, he won't feel much like being active and will choose to rest for long periods. If he's mostly active, he probably isn't in pain.

As to the issue of his aggressiveness, he needs a combination of discipline and ignoring. When he lunges at you with his beak, that is definitely not to be tolerated. Discipline would consist of immediately immobilizing him when he does that, held down with head on the ground until he relaxes. The rest of the time, as long as he's behaving okay, he should be ignored. That includes hand feeding. I know you love him, and I have two roos I adore, but roosters are best left alone if you want them not to be human aggressive. Save your hugs and cuddles for the hens.

 

[shannon84]

Trying to treat an aggressive rooster is, not impossible, but pretty darned close. This is the first on this thread I've noticed you having this problem with him. It's much more than just trying to handle a skittish chicken. Trying to handle him and feed him and give him medication can actually cause more stress in your relationship with him. And since he's probably well set in his ways, it may be impossible to change his behavior.

My guess as to his balance problem after watching the video, is that he probably had a head injury early as a chick, and now has to cope with mild brain damage. He may not actually be in pain.

One way to tell if a chicken is in pain is to watch him for a while. A chicken will hold a sore foot up against his belly or peck at it. If both legs are painful, he won't feel much like being active and will choose to rest for long periods. If he's mostly active, he probably isn't in pain.

As to the issue of his aggressiveness, he needs a combination of discipline and ignoring. When he lunges at you with his beak, that is definitely not to be tolerated. Discipline would consist of immediately immobilizing him when he does that, held down with head on the ground until he relaxes. The rest of the time, as long as he's behaving okay, he should be ignored. That includes hand feeding. I know you love him, and I have two roos I adore, but roosters are best left alone if you want them not to be human aggressive. Save your hugs and cuddles for the hens.

I think I'm finally realizing that, I feel he won't change as well unfortunately. I think I've been hoping someone will say do this, or that and he'll change, I think I could do about every trick in the book on that rooster and he is not going to change, like you said, I do believe he is set in his ways as well ... roosters are just so differrent then hens. I'm just learning all this the hard way as a first time rooster/chicken owner. I'll save my love for the hens. They don't make me bleed lol. The brain damage theory is interesting. Could very well be.

 

[coach723]

A simple thing such as a tiny aspirin has performed a transformation on Su-su. A year ago, she would sit in one spot all day, moving appeared too painful. Inactivity isn't good for chickens, just as it's not good for humans. And remaining in one spot made her very vulnerable to bullies and feather pickers.

Lately, I've also been giving her a B-complex tablet each day. This has noticeably strengthened the lame leg so that now she's moving about much more than she sits.

Have you ever considered CBD oil? Just curious, I've not had reason to use it on a chicken (yet) but I do use it on my dog who has developed terrible arthritis in her hips. She was barely moving, had great difficultly getting up, and had a lot of atrophy in her hips and legs. I was really reluctant to do rimadyl long term, so tried CBD. She has regained a lot of muscle mass and walks normally and jumps on the bed again, all within about 4 months. I know it's safe for chickens as they did studies to see if it affected laying and egg quality. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22334746
I give my dog 20 drops twice a day mixed in her food (we are currently seeing if we can reduce that a bit or not- she's about 65 lbs.) so I imagine a chicken would need much less. Just thought I'd throw that out there as it doesn't come with the long term digestive issues that aspirin/nsaids can. Aspirin may be cheaper, I'd have to do the math to see how many doses could be gotten from a bottle of CBD to compare.