Roo pecking at his own legs

[Marigold2019]

Hello all! Need help figuring out what's wrong with my roosters legs. Buff orpington approx 4.5 months old. He's pecking at the outside of both legs (just those spots, nowhere else). Epsom salt baths seem to help a little. Ive tried VetRX mixed with Vaseline, but problem is persisting. I've ordered poultry wound spray and the Manna poultry mite spray. Though I'm not fully convinced of mites. Today I'm trying Forticept Blue Butter. As a side note, the roo loves to be with people more than his own kind. We've struggled integrating him into our flock because he gets incredibly anxious and ultimately calms when with our family. Could his leg pecking be from stress? Help! Thank you!!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

His scales look tight, so it doesn't obviously appear to be scaly leg mites, but that is my first thought. Burrowing mites can be very irritating. Treating with the epsom salt bath to soothe, then liberal application of vaseline will take care of it in time. For faster eradication, apply Ivermecting 1% drops (about 5) to the base of the tail. Repeat in 2 doses about 10 days apart. Examining the rest of the flock for signs of scaly mite may help answer your question (with obvious flock treatment too).

Second thought is stress picking. Young roos are often hazed fairly severely by a flock because they usually are being something of a jerk or at least don't understand proper flock protocol. If he is submissive and anxious rather than assertive, he may be getting quite a bit of hazing which is stressing him out resulting in self harm.

Hard to know. You may consider isolating him for awhile to treat the legs as if it were scaly leg mite and to let him mature a bit for flock integration. Once he is bigger, he may find more confidence.

My thoughts.
LofMc