New Hampshire rooster won’t stand on feet

[imacowgirl2]

When we were moving breeding roosters around earlier this afternoon, I noticed one of my NH roos seemed to be standing funny. He is low man on the totem pole, so I brought him into the shed to a crate to observe and keep him out of the chaos of pecking order being re-established in the bachelor pad. He won’t stand upright on his feet, he leans back and almost sits/stands on his hocks.

My daughter looked at his feet and said she didn’t see anything like bumble foot, but I will double check and get some pictures once I get off work. In the meantime, any ideas on what might be causing it and what to do for him? I saw him roosting just fine on the camera last week, so whatever it is, its somewhat of new development; though now that I think about it when I threw scratch grains out last week, he seemed to keep losing his balance so maybe he wasn’t losing his balance so much as trying to stay off sore feet…

 

[Eggcessive]

I would start some human B complex 1/2 tablet daily crushed and given in food and a little water. Look carefully at his foot pads, ankles, hocks for swelling green bruising or redness. Pictures could help. How old is he? Was he vaccinated for Mareks? An injury may be possible.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I would start some human B complex 1/2 tablet daily crushed and given in food and a little water. Look carefully at his foot pads, ankles, hocks for swelling green bruising or redness. Pictures could help. How old is he? Was he vaccinated for Mareks? An injury may be possible.

5 months old (21 weeks), not vaccinated, and I will get pictures after work.

 

[imacowgirl2]

 

[imacowgirl2]

Despite his flopping around in the video, he doesn’t seem like he’s paralyzed…it seems to be more of not wanting weight on his feet. He was also moving his feet and toes while I was holding them for close up pictures.

You can see in video above how he doesn’t want to put any weight on his feet. Below are pictures of bottoms and tops of his feet:

 

[Wyorp Rock]

What's his poop like?

I'd try the vitamins as suggested.

See that he's drinking well and eating chick starter or an all flock feed.
How many roosters/cockerels are in the bachelor pad, he's low man so he may not be getting to eat/drink like he should.
Check him for lice/mites and that his crop is emptying overnight.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Any other suggestions for this rooster? He still isn’t standing, though after being very intentional about getting the vitamin B complex and Vitamin E in him every day this week, he does seem to be making a small improvement —he is changing positions in the dog crate more often, and he is now sitting more forward when he is laying down…I can tell because his vent is no longer sitting on his poop when he is laying down, it is up above the ground like a normal chicken when they are resting on the ground.

He is eating and drinking great, and his attitude seems to be great…he talks to us when we come into the shed, and he talks to the hens through the window when they are in the front yard outside his window. He is pooping the right amount, and it is the right consistency, though maybe a little greener than normal.

This is the vitamin B complex we are using…is this one fine, or do we need a different one? I thought I saw mention on the forums somewhere about B3 being important, but this one doesn’t have any B3.

 

[Eggcessive]

The last pictures look like he may have suffered frostbite in his feet or just the left foot. Could you get some current pictures of his feet to show the coloring? There have been many cases of frostbite in the cold temperatures in the last 2 weeks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

This is the vitamin B complex we are using…is this one fine, or do we need a different one? I thought I saw mention on the forums somewhere about B3 being important, but this one doesn’t have any B3.

The B Complex you have if fine to give.
B3 is Niacin, so the Complex you have does contain that.

 

[imacowgirl2]

For anyone who has been following this thread, or finds it in the future…one month to the day and this rooster is walking again! We’ve seen him standing a few times this past week, and taking a halting step or two, but today he was standing when I came out to the shed first thing this morning, walked across the crate, and was standing most of the times I checked on him throughout the day. He’s still unbalanced slightly to the front, like he was when I first noticed him walking funny before he stopped walking/standing at all but I’m hoping with continued vitamins he will get past even that.

On nice days we’ve been taking him outside to sit in the sun and enjoy a change of scenery and visiting with the free ranging hens who wander over — today when I set him down he stood up and wing danced a hen then tried to breed her…so no more visiting the hens for him!!

We’ve been giving him a Super Complex B vitamin and a Vitamin E capsule every day…he’s been an awesome patient and gobbles them right up out of his food bowl most days! Other than that, treatment consisted of trimming down his back end feathers to prevent poop matting in them, making sure he had enough shavings in the crate that he could use them to kind of prop himself up, and making sure he had food and water right in front of him as often as possible (easier said than done!). I found that using the pelletized horse bedding from TSC (not watered at all, just straight from the bag) under a generous layer of shaving worked best…the pelletized bedding soaked up water much better than the shavings which was very useful because he frequently spilled his water either trying to drink or when he was flapping around with his wings after losing his balance, and the shavings on top provided a soft spot for him to lay.

We situated his crate on a table right inside a west facing window of the shed so that he had plenty of natural light and was able to watch the hens free ranging in the yard every day. For the past two weeks we’ve been taking him outside most days for at least a couple hours to sit in the front yard in the sunshine among the free ranging hens.

He will stay in his crate for at least another week to facilitate continued care while I am out of town on a trip the end of this week then I will evaluate whether he has made enough progress to be moved to our larger crate setup. We will continue daily vitamins until he reached full improvement. Assuming he continues improving to full health, he will return to the bachelor pad, but probably in his own small section — he was lowest on the totem pole before this incident, and I know there is no way to safely reintegrate him with the flock of roosters that are in there now.