So to add to 6Chickens experience (I wish we knew what eventually happened):
My chickie is about 9 months old. About 4 weeks ago she came up limping. My knowledgeable chickie friends saw the video and said it looked like a bum hip.
I put her in a dog crate within the chicken run to recoup without the others sticking it to her.
Fast forward 3 weeks (5 days ago) and my husband discovered she was now just sitting in one spot. So I took her to a vet who did oodles of scans/xrays. Her hip is not dislocated or fractured. Perhaps nerve damage. Her bum leg was sticking out back and the other sticking straight out front.
I brought her inside with plenty of hay in the dog crate. Like another indicated, my chickie spreads the hay around with all her flapping and flopping so winds up sitting on the floor.
Like 6Chickens experience, my Shandy is eating like a champ. She seems to be her usual perky self. She talks when I talk to her. She lets me pet her and seems to enjoy it. She seems maaaaaaybe uncomfortable, but not in pain... Just yesterday I started noticing that sometimes I hear her inhale or exhale with a wheeze to it. ?
Sounds like from what others have said that there's a chance it's merricks disease. I have another chicken owner friend who once had a chicken doing something very similar. Friend let the chicken skooch around on her belly, getting herself food and whatnot. And then she turned up dead soon after.
Have to bet 6chickens chickie turned up dead too if she didn't some back with reports of her chickie improving.
We were going to put Shandy down last night... but she was so perky it was rather impossible to bring ourselves to do it. But from all the other stories Ive read in my research on this... all but one in maybe 8 stories I've found had the chickie not recovering. *sigh* no fun. To prolong or not to prolong... what is more humane?
