Lame peacock

[fork_goblin]

I am in desperate need of advice. My workplace has a lovely peacock called William. I love him so much but in the last few months (I first noticed back in may) he has been limping. The limping is now much worse. He will use the leg to hobble but does not put weight on it. When standing he will often lift the leg. I have been unable to get a close look at him but I can see no obvious injuries on his leg or foot. He is otherwise healthy in appearance and had just shed his feathers and is growing the new ones in nicely and He still flies.
I have bought this up to my boss many many times but he won’t do anything about it. William isn’t actually owned by us but just turned up one day and has been here since (quite a few years ago might I add) and therefore my boss sees no responsibility to even check for signs of illness or injury.

I am not sure how old he is, the only thing I know is that we do not feed him, instead his diet mostly consists of deep fried chicken nuggets and chips, fried doughnuts and ice creams along with other scraps he find on the floor. So as you can imagine that’s a lot of oil and salt.

I am wondering if there are any common health conditions with peafowl that may be the cause or if anyone can give me hints as to what I should be looking out for do be able to have more of an idea of why he is lame.
I am hoping if I can approach my boss with a potential explanation for his poorly leg he may be more inclined to do something.

 

[Waterfaery]

Your boss clearly has no intention of taking responsibilty for him so if you want to help him, you will probably need to do it yourself or try to find someone local to you who has peafowl to help him.

It would be best if you could get a hold of him and give his leg a thorough check but it sounds like that will be difficult. Can you get close enough to take a video or even some photos of his foot and leg and the way he limps? That may help people to help you.

There are some common leg issues with peachicks but with a mature peacock it's most likely an injury.

It could be bumblefoot, which is an infection caused by a cut or sore on the underside of the foot. If you can get a look under his foot you may be able to rule that out because it would look quite sore and swollen. He would need antibiotics if that were the case.

If it's a leg injury, you may be able to notice some swelling higher up on his hock if you look closely.

A lot of leg injuries never resolve but he may still live a happy life depending on how severe it is and where the problem is. Aspirin is safe for birds and will help if he's in pain. You could give him 100mg twice a day and see if he improves. Make sure not to give paracetamol or any other human pain relief but aspirin is fine. Put it into a treat that he'll eat.

I would strongly adivse sorting out his diet in any case. It would be a good idea to read through the stickies in the peafowl forum for more info on diet and peafowl care in general.

 

[KsKingBee]

Your boss clearly has no intention of taking responsibilty for him so if you want to help him, you will probably need to do it yourself or try to find someone local to you who has peafowl to help him.

It would be best if you could get a hold of him and give his leg a thorough check but it sounds like that will be difficult. Can you get close enough to take a video or even some photos of his foot and leg and the way he limps? That may help people to help you.

There are some common leg issues with peachicks but with a mature peacock it's most likely an injury.

It could be bumblefoot, which is an infection caused by a cut or sore on the underside of the foot. If you can get a look under his foot you may be able to rule that out because it would look quite sore and swollen. He would need antibiotics if that were the case.

If it's a leg injury, you may be able to notice some swelling higher up on his hock if you look closely.

A lot of leg injuries never resolve but he may still live a happy life depending on how severe it is and where the problem is. Aspirin is safe for birds and will help if he's in pain. You could give him 100mg twice a day and see if he improves. Make sure not to give paracetamol or any other human pain relief but aspirin is fine. Put it into a treat that he'll eat.

I would strongly adivse sorting out his diet in any case. It would be a good idea to read through the stickies in the peafowl forum for more info on diet and peafowl care in general.

As always, great advice. I assume it is an injury from landing too hard on a hard surface. Like you said many birds do not recover from that type of injury.