Weird lump on hen's leg

Our hen Amaryllis turned up lame last winter, and we could see nothing wrong with her leg or foot. We confined her to hospital pen and dipped her leg in Permethrin, then later tried Denagard, and finally Baytril. After 6 weeks in hospital pen, the last 9 days of which she was on Baytril,she appeared to be sound, and we let her out. She's been with the flock since, without any apparent problems. A few days ago I noticed she had a slight limp. Today she was extremely lame, and her foot, leg, and joints were seemed sore to touch. She has a bit of heat in the foot. I see no entry point on the foot which would indicate possible bumblefoot, although she has a weird dirty looking patch between her toes, I do believe it is dirt, or some kind of stain. But on her leg, maybe an inch about her toe, is a strange oval small lump. The lump itself does not seem to be painful to touch. It is hard to see, but please review picture below and give me your thoughts. Could this be bumblefoot moving up into the leg? And if so, why would it not be a lot worse than it was a month ago? (She's lame on the same leg as before). Or, could this be MS? We have had some problems with MS in the past year. I'm just worried about the lump though. My husband thinks it looks very strange..I just think it looks like it might be some kind of deformity on her leg. She's back in hospital pen, on Baytril, starting tonight. Eating and drinking well. Thoughts?

Here's the picture, sorry, I had to switch browsers to upload

I commented in the gallery view that the lump is hard to see, but it looks like an egg shaped scale, about halfway up her leg.

Molly, is the foot joint swollen? Swelling at the joint there is classic MS. You will sometimes notice opaque looking scales and they can be raised around any area that is swollen. MS generally strikes the left foot only, from what I understand. There is usually lots of heat and redness with MS, but again, in the foot joint or hock.

No the foot joint itself isn't swollen. In fact there doesn't seem to be any swelling in the joints at all. Just a lot of pain, and the weird looking lump or scale or whatever the heck it is. and some heat in the foot. It is her left foot though.

chicknmania said:

No the foot joint itself isn't swollen. In fact there doesn't seem to be any swelling in the joints at all. Just a lot of pain, and the weird looking lump or scale or whatever the heck it is. and some heat in the foot. It is her left foot though.

Click to expand...

Maybe she sprained it? MS is generally a joint thing, if it takes the path of leaking from the tendon sheaths...hence the fluid leaks into the joint and down into the pads. Feel up at the hock...is it hot or swollen?

If none of the joints are effected, then I doubt it is MS. And when it is MS, the swelling is great. Of course MS can take the path of respiratory ailments as well. But severe cases will always attack the leg and foot joints, not just random places in the leg.

We have a rooster who has been battling MS for some time...a few months. Currently we are treating him with Lincomycin for the second time, and this time it seems to be doing him some good. Yes, he has had the classic swollen joints and foot pads, but he started out the same as her...nothing at all to see, really. Just lame. Also his is in his right leg, although for a short time it was in both legs. Coincidentally, she developed her lameness just a few weeks after his started. They both were in separate hospital cages at the same time, and both rejoined the flock on the same day. That's why I suspect that maybe it is MS. Her joints are not swollen but they are ouchy. There is heat in her foot but from what we can see there are no injuries or signs of bumblefoot on the foot itself. My husband noticed the weird little bump on her leg and thought it was very odd, that's why I posted the pic. I think it's just a weirdness on her leg, and probably doesn't have anything to do with the lameness, but I suppose it could be a bite or something. Yes, it could be a sprain and maybe she just re-injured it, that is always possible, so thanks for pointing it out, because maybe I'm over thinking it. It's just so hard to figure these things out and half the time we turn out to be totally wrong! Also her brother died recently. He had wry neck, and we treated him for that, but I really think he had Marek's or some congenital thing, because their mother also had what we thought was Marek's, but she seemed to recover. She later died from something else. So it could be a congenital thing, too....as far as Amaryllis the hen is concerned.

Anyway, I just wanted to see what people thought, so I will let you know. I have her on the Baytril first because it seemed to help before, but it could have been just coincidence because when she started with the Baytril she'd already been on forced rest for over four weeks....so it could have been the rest that fixed her temporarily. Round and round........

Thanks for the input.

Yes, I would definitely run meds through her since others have MS too. MS is highly contagious. Can't hurt to get her on them too.