Please help me help my roo!

[sarahkunding]

I have a 16 week white leghorn roo. He grew extremely quickly-twice the size of my hens and had full comb and wattles by 8 weeks. He now walks like he is arthritic. He has a very stiff gate when he walks. I have checked his feet. No sign of bumblefoot. He spends much of his time lieing down and leaning forward. He is eating and drinking. I have put antibiotic and vitamins in their water. The hens appear to be fine. Any advice or solutions??? Thanks.

 

[fried green eggs]

Is there anyway your rooster could be a Cornish X rooster? They are all white and grow very fast and can display symptoms like yours.

 

[Sphinx]

Is there anyway your rooster could be a Cornish X rooster? They are all white and grow very fast and can display symptoms like yours.

That was my first thought as well.

Is he still much, much larger than all of your other chickens?

Cornish crosses grow incredibly fast, reaching adult weight by 9-10 weeks. They're usually processed by 12 weeks, and most start showing signs of arthritis, joint trouble, heart trouble, etc by the time they're 20 weeks. Most die in that time span. I've rarely heard of any living much longer.

 

[sarahkunding]

It is very possible. Yes, he is still much larger than my others. I am new to all of this so just thought that roosters grew much faster than hens. I guess I will just keep an eye on him and wait to see what happens. It doesn't appear that he is suffering but not sure how I would know that I don't want that. I guess the upside to this is that for my first experience with a rooster it has been a very good one because he is very nice.

 

[sarahkunding]

Just looked at pictures of the cornish x rooster and that is exactly what he is. I must admit I didn't want a rooster but have become attached to him so I am bummed. I won't make a very good farmer!

 

[fried green eggs]

I'm sorry

I got really attached to the CX we got last year. Stupid birds are much more docile than other breeds and very trainable because of food drive. If you limit his feed and let him free range to get most of his feed it will be possible to keep him a little longer than normal CX life expectancy. The CX will eat themselves to death if not limited so put him on a very controlled diet. Think of it as 'He has a good life for as long as possible and much better than if, you hadn't bought him!'

 

[sarahkunding]

Thanks for all of the help and advice!! Unfortunately we have such a hawk issue at our house that free ranging is tough unless I am out with them. I will limit as best I can (or maybe give him extra treats and let him go out fat and happy

 

[fried green eggs]

I would try to restrict his diet some. Meat birds can break legs from their weight.

Good Luck.

 

[sarahkunding]

I will do that. Not positive that the heart is not an issue as well-he lays down a lot! Thanks again for all of your help!!!

 

[fried green eggs]

Laying down and resting is in it's DNA because they have been breed to Eat, Sleep & Poo and get big Fast. Last year we kept our meat birds much longer than normal because they seemed to be doing so well and enjoying life. They were the size of thanksgiving turkeys when we processed them. I had just six and because of their size I could let them out to free range for a few hours everyday before sunset. No hawk was going to swoop down and pick up one of these birds. LOL. I fed them at night - which did two things: made it easy to get them locked in for the night and limited how much they ate. They would eat then sleep for the night and eat again in the morning before I pulled food and Not eat all day long. It was absolutely roll on the ground funny watching them run/waddle to come for dinner. Good Luck with your big boy.