Chicken hopping on one leg no external injury

[snow5164]

Please don’t panic , my girl hopped around for 2 weeks then slowly stopped, I think she just sprained something, I told her no high heels in the run

 

[rebrascora]

Marek's spreads via infected dander dust. It can be carried on clothing shoes skin and hair, feathers of course as well as the wind and you could pick it up from visiting someone else's flock, visiting a poultry show, or even the feed store where someone else carried it in on their clothes from their flock. So pretty much anywhere. The tiny particles are inhaled to infect new hosts, but then there is a dormant phase which can be weeks months or years. So if you have ever bought adult birds or even chicks from a breeder, there is the possibility of them carrying the disease and can even get through a 6 week quarantine process. An outbreak in any particular bird can be as subtle as being unable to keep one eyelid fully open or as drastic as the bird floundering on it's side unable to get up, or even sudden death with no apparent symptoms. It is an extremely widespread and very common disease. It mostly affects young birds between the ages of 8-20 weeks but can be anywhere from 3 weeks to several years old. And yes I have seen some birds regain full use of a limb and others that only managed a partial recovery and some that decline and die.
Of course this may not be the problem with your chicken and it could just be a sprain or other injury.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

How old is she. My best guess would be Marek's. I had one that started like that walking on her knuckles and it got grazed a bit. I tried to make a boot to encourage her to keep it flat and walk on it but she kept standing on it and tripping over. She learned to lift it out of the way and hop everwhere and she continued like that for about a year, happily free ranging and laying eggs and then she had a second outbreak of Marek's and started getting picked on by the flock, but I managed to pal her up with another Marek's sick pullet and the two of them beat a second bout of the disease and both got back to free ranging with the flock after months of supportive care. Sadly they both eventually fell victim to a fox but had a good quality of life in the mean time, although the Marek's would no doubt have killed them in the end.
A good quality poultry vitamin supplement to support the immune system and a probiotic or fermented feed to support the digestive tract and a stress free environment and access to grass have been the things that have been most beneficial in my experience.

 

[Chicktori]

I have a 4 week old chick that got squished behind a door in the chicken coop the other day he was hiding in the crack behind it when I tried to open and didn’t see him in there I thought he was fine until this morning he will not use his one leg the foot is limp any suggestions

 

[Eggcessive]

I have a 4 week old chick that got squished behind a door in the chicken coop the other day he was hiding in the crack behind it when I tried to open and didn’t see him in there I thought he was fine until this morning he will not use his one leg the foot is limp any suggestions

You may want to start a new thread of your own for less confusion. Click on this link, and look for the blue box that says “post new thread:”
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures.10/

 

[shyylo]

what ever happened to your hen? I am in this same situation now. thx