Our rooster has a broken spur and we need advice on what to do.....

[OrpLover]

Two days ago our 10mo old Buff Orpington rooster was injured when a board blocking our other rooster from his view fell over. It wasn't the board that injured him--he attempted to fight with the other rooster through the chicken wire. By the time we realized what had happened his feet were cut from the wire. The cuts aren't serious and are healing. However, one of his spurs is hanging down next to his leg, not pointing straight out like his undamaged spur--it bled some after the injury. The spur doesn't feel loose, but he pulls his foot back when we touch it. His foot around the injury also looks fine as far as we can tell, other than the redness where the wire scraped it. Other than that he's fine: walking, eating, drinking, mating with no apparent problems.

We took pictures, but they don't show the spur well. If you still need a picture after the above description, we'll try again. We'd prefer to take care of this ourselves if at all possible. We're fairly new to raising chickens, but we do know there is a tender growth inside the harder growth. Should we do something about his spur? Will the spur continue to grow downwards against his leg, possibly causing problems later on?

Ray and Kate

 

[FrizzlesRule]

I've had roosters who lost spurs right down to the leg and yes it would bleed, but they actually will grow back. The best thing is for the spur to come off and let him grow a new one once the wound heals.

 

[OrpLover]

Thank you! We need to take the spur off ourselves then. We can do that--well, we've never done that before, but we have to learn sooner or later. It's such a relief to know it's not serious and we can handle it ourselves. You made our day, FrizzlesRule.

Thanks again.
Ray and Kate