Hello
I have read a lot about this, including the very excellent article written by Two Crows, but. I'm trying to see if there's a way to tell for sure if my two year old hen has a slipped tendon, a sprain, something broken, or if something else is wrong. . She started limping a few months ago. I confined her in a hospital pen, and ,at the time, treated her for MS, because we had another bird that we were sure had MS, and he responded to the same treatment. He, however, had swollen joints, where our hen did not. Our hen, Amaryllis, remained in her hospital cage for four weeks. She improved a lot during that time, and at the end of the four weeks, I decided she was well enough to go out. I let her out, but she was limping again after one day. I returned her to the hospital pen where she remained for another two weeks. At that time, she seemed to be completely sound, I released her, and she did well and walked normally for about three weeks. I then noticed her limping again, so she returned to the hospital pen. She has been there for the past five weeks, and if anything, she is somewhat more lame than she was when I put her in there. She does not seem to be able to support weight on her foot, but she CAN straighten the leg. Most of the time, she walks on her hock on that side, or, otherwise, she has a severe limp. During all this time she has shown no signs of Marek's, or any other illness. She is dewormed regularly and was last dewormed in March with Safeguard. She eats and drinks well, lays an egg every day, is of good weight, good color, bright and alert, full use of wings and everything else except her left leg/ foot. Never have I noticed any swollen joints in her legs anywhere, but she DID have heat in her left foot and ankle joint when I noticed her limping this second time. This seems to be gone now though. She has no signs of Bumblefoot, or Scaly Leg Mites. She eats Flock Raiser, Layer, and occasionally a little mixed grain or corn. She has an extra toe on her lame foot, but it is very small and does not look inflamed or anything. We have tried treating her with LS50, Denagard, aspirin, Baytril, Rooster Booster B & K Vitamins, organic ACV in her water. Not all at once, of course, but over the weeks that she's been confined we have tried those different treatments. . And, of course, rest. I assumed originally that she probably had a sprain, and that she re-injured it when I let her out, possibly from rough breeding from a rooster, But I have been reading some about slipped tendons too and that's why I'm trying to figure out if maybe this is what she has. Is there a good way to tell in an adult bird??? I don't want to hurt her, and she is very touchy when we try to examine it. The only weird thing that I have noticed, and can't explain...is that she USED to lay light brown eggs...and now they are white. I can't see that this could possibly be related to her lameness in any way, but I think that is a little weird. Does anyone have any thoughts?
I have read a lot about this, including the very excellent article written by Two Crows, but. I'm trying to see if there's a way to tell for sure if my two year old hen has a slipped tendon, a sprain, something broken, or if something else is wrong. . She started limping a few months ago. I confined her in a hospital pen, and ,at the time, treated her for MS, because we had another bird that we were sure had MS, and he responded to the same treatment. He, however, had swollen joints, where our hen did not. Our hen, Amaryllis, remained in her hospital cage for four weeks. She improved a lot during that time, and at the end of the four weeks, I decided she was well enough to go out. I let her out, but she was limping again after one day. I returned her to the hospital pen where she remained for another two weeks. At that time, she seemed to be completely sound, I released her, and she did well and walked normally for about three weeks. I then noticed her limping again, so she returned to the hospital pen. She has been there for the past five weeks, and if anything, she is somewhat more lame than she was when I put her in there. She does not seem to be able to support weight on her foot, but she CAN straighten the leg. Most of the time, she walks on her hock on that side, or, otherwise, she has a severe limp. During all this time she has shown no signs of Marek's, or any other illness. She is dewormed regularly and was last dewormed in March with Safeguard. She eats and drinks well, lays an egg every day, is of good weight, good color, bright and alert, full use of wings and everything else except her left leg/ foot. Never have I noticed any swollen joints in her legs anywhere, but she DID have heat in her left foot and ankle joint when I noticed her limping this second time. This seems to be gone now though. She has no signs of Bumblefoot, or Scaly Leg Mites. She eats Flock Raiser, Layer, and occasionally a little mixed grain or corn. She has an extra toe on her lame foot, but it is very small and does not look inflamed or anything. We have tried treating her with LS50, Denagard, aspirin, Baytril, Rooster Booster B & K Vitamins, organic ACV in her water. Not all at once, of course, but over the weeks that she's been confined we have tried those different treatments. . And, of course, rest. I assumed originally that she probably had a sprain, and that she re-injured it when I let her out, possibly from rough breeding from a rooster, But I have been reading some about slipped tendons too and that's why I'm trying to figure out if maybe this is what she has. Is there a good way to tell in an adult bird??? I don't want to hurt her, and she is very touchy when we try to examine it. The only weird thing that I have noticed, and can't explain...is that she USED to lay light brown eggs...and now they are white. I can't see that this could possibly be related to her lameness in any way, but I think that is a little weird. Does anyone have any thoughts?
