Lame Rooster

[Pyxis]

I think I'm at the point where I'm just going to have to put him down, but I'm looking for some opinions on what could have caused this.

I have a rooster who started limping on one leg about a month ago. It seemed to get better, then got rapidly worse and now he pretty much just sits in one spot all the time, although he can get up and move very slowly, using his wing for balance, if he needs to. The leg has no swelling anywhere and is not hot to the touch, and he can move it, he just doesn't want to put weight on it. I tried him on a broad spectrum antibiotic in case of infection (tetracycline) for a few days and it did nothing for him.

Does anyone have any idea what this is? Maybe he jumped off a roost and fractured it/did damage to the hip and it's not healing? I'm just not sure what it could be. I'm thinking some kind of injury that he's not healing from for whatever reason.

 

[Ameraucanas]

That's really wierd. I have no clue, but I really wish I could help. I know that putting any animal down can be really hard, and I want you to know that the BYC community is there to support you.

 

[Pyxis]

Just a quick update to this - I never did cull him and he's still hanging in there. He can walk again but not well, can't mate with the hens anymore, and just generally can't defend himself. I've moved him into my duck house so he's away from my other roosters and he has one pullet to keep him company that had bonded strongly with one of my ducks and I didn't want to separate them. I'm still not sure at all what happened to him.