BookWormDenise
Songster
Jean is a 15-16 week old Polish chicken who started limping badly on Sunday. She was not wanting to put weight on her right leg. I have no idea what happened to her. She was in a separate area with only 2 other Polish hens, but she’s kind of a runt and definitely lowest in the pecking order.
I uploaded a video of her limping here…
Jean limping on Sunday
I brought her inside and put her in a dog crate so I could watch her, get her out of the heat, and so she wouldn’t get picked on. She has a great appetite and is drinking water. Her poop looks normal, no diarrhea.
I took her to the vet on Monday afternoon. He did not feel anything broken or dislocated and couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with her, except that her temperature was 105. Jean only weighed 1.25 pounds and he noted that she’s skinny. He said maybe she just pulled something or that it could be bad genetics. He gave her a shot of Convenia (antibiotic), a vitamin B-12 injection, a vitamin A&D injection, a dose of ivermectin, and rimadyl (1/16 of a 25mg chewable once a day). They did a fecal examination and saw no parasites. He said I could try a hobble to try to help get her right leg back under her body where it’s supposed to be instead of splayed out to the side.
After I gave the vet a bunch of money and went home to set up a chicken hospital area in my laundry room, I thought of a bunch of questions I forgot to ask.
Can an almost-adult chicken get splay leg like a chick? If so, can it be fixed?
Can a genetic problem manifest overnight at 16 weeks old?
Is keeping her confined the right thing to do?
Is the hobble the right thing to do?
How long should I try the hobble before giving up? Does my hobble look right?
Are the toes on her right foot curled? If so, do I need to make a splint for them?
How long would a sprain or some such leg injury take to heal?
Besides the daily rimadyl dose, I’m putting Rooster Booster vitamins and electrolytes with lacto bacillus and Rooster Booster liquid B-12 in her water. I’ve also been feeding her scrambled eggs as treats, although not very much — I think it’s taken her 3 days to eat one egg. She is still enthusiastically eating and drinking.
I bought Jean and the buff Polish (Lottie) in the video together as 6-week-old pullets from MPC, and I’ve always thought Jean in particular was scrawny and sometimes seemed unsteady, like sometimes she’d kind of sway and rock back on her knees before taking off. They were shipped to me a week late because they were dealing with heat stress, but I think our humid Texas heat has been rougher on them than the ones I raised from day-old chicks (also from MPC -- this is my first flock). Jean and Lottie are supposed to be one week older than the rest of my flock. My intention was for these two Polish to be friends for my single black Polish (Chickabiddy) who was at one time getting picked on by all the rest of my “normal” chicks. I figured since Jean and Lottie were a week older than my birds, they’d be bigger and could get their bluff in. Ha! What a rookie I am. These birds were about half the size of my birds, and Lottie had been severely pecked. They were petrified of people, wouldn’t go near any type of food except the starter/grower feed, didn’t know how to roost — to me it seemed like they didn’t know how to be chickens. I kept them in a separate area of the run with the hope of fattening them up so that maybe once they‘re all grown, I could integrate them into the main flock, or integrate Chickabiddy in with them to make a separate, small flock (hubby agreed to build a second coop a while back).
Here is Jean’s hospital room…
This is my latest hobble attempt…
If you read this far, many thanks for your time. If you have any advice or experience to share with me, Jean and I would be most grateful.
P. S. Jean doesn’t hate me anymore. She will eat from my hand, and I gave her a bath tonight and blow-dried her feathers, a first for both of us.
I uploaded a video of her limping here…
Jean limping on Sunday
I brought her inside and put her in a dog crate so I could watch her, get her out of the heat, and so she wouldn’t get picked on. She has a great appetite and is drinking water. Her poop looks normal, no diarrhea.
I took her to the vet on Monday afternoon. He did not feel anything broken or dislocated and couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with her, except that her temperature was 105. Jean only weighed 1.25 pounds and he noted that she’s skinny. He said maybe she just pulled something or that it could be bad genetics. He gave her a shot of Convenia (antibiotic), a vitamin B-12 injection, a vitamin A&D injection, a dose of ivermectin, and rimadyl (1/16 of a 25mg chewable once a day). They did a fecal examination and saw no parasites. He said I could try a hobble to try to help get her right leg back under her body where it’s supposed to be instead of splayed out to the side.
After I gave the vet a bunch of money and went home to set up a chicken hospital area in my laundry room, I thought of a bunch of questions I forgot to ask.
Can an almost-adult chicken get splay leg like a chick? If so, can it be fixed?
Can a genetic problem manifest overnight at 16 weeks old?
Is keeping her confined the right thing to do?
Is the hobble the right thing to do?
How long should I try the hobble before giving up? Does my hobble look right?
Are the toes on her right foot curled? If so, do I need to make a splint for them?
How long would a sprain or some such leg injury take to heal?
Besides the daily rimadyl dose, I’m putting Rooster Booster vitamins and electrolytes with lacto bacillus and Rooster Booster liquid B-12 in her water. I’ve also been feeding her scrambled eggs as treats, although not very much — I think it’s taken her 3 days to eat one egg. She is still enthusiastically eating and drinking.
I bought Jean and the buff Polish (Lottie) in the video together as 6-week-old pullets from MPC, and I’ve always thought Jean in particular was scrawny and sometimes seemed unsteady, like sometimes she’d kind of sway and rock back on her knees before taking off. They were shipped to me a week late because they were dealing with heat stress, but I think our humid Texas heat has been rougher on them than the ones I raised from day-old chicks (also from MPC -- this is my first flock). Jean and Lottie are supposed to be one week older than the rest of my flock. My intention was for these two Polish to be friends for my single black Polish (Chickabiddy) who was at one time getting picked on by all the rest of my “normal” chicks. I figured since Jean and Lottie were a week older than my birds, they’d be bigger and could get their bluff in. Ha! What a rookie I am. These birds were about half the size of my birds, and Lottie had been severely pecked. They were petrified of people, wouldn’t go near any type of food except the starter/grower feed, didn’t know how to roost — to me it seemed like they didn’t know how to be chickens. I kept them in a separate area of the run with the hope of fattening them up so that maybe once they‘re all grown, I could integrate them into the main flock, or integrate Chickabiddy in with them to make a separate, small flock (hubby agreed to build a second coop a while back).
Here is Jean’s hospital room…
This is my latest hobble attempt…
If you read this far, many thanks for your time. If you have any advice or experience to share with me, Jean and I would be most grateful.
P. S. Jean doesn’t hate me anymore. She will eat from my hand, and I gave her a bath tonight and blow-dried her feathers, a first for both of us.
