Injured free-range chicken in my yard

[koko365]

Hello Folks,

I have two chickens and a rooster that frequent my yard. They are here 3 or 4 days a week and often sleep in a tree in the yard. About a week ago my daughter found one chicken on the ground hurt. I suspect it might have fallen out of the tree... it spends most of it's time on one side or another and can't really stand. I scared it, but picked it up and put it in my otherwise empty coop with some fresh pine shavings and water and corn and mealworms and canned green beans..... kept it inside for a couple of days hoping it would recover. Let it out... but it still can't walk but tries... Right now it is out in the yard with the other female bird and rooster. What more can I do for this creature?

 

[Eggcessive]

I would look over the legs along the entire leg up into the feathers for any redness, green bruising, or swelling. Examine the foot pads for scabs or cuts. Try making a chicken sling out of home things, to get it upright so it can eat and drink food placed in front. Resting the leg for a bit could help with healing if it is an injury or fracture. A balanced chicken feed would be best for giving all of the proper nutrients.

But keep in mind, something like Mareks disease could cause paralysis in one or both legs. A vitamin deficiency could cause curled under toes and sitting on hocks. Here is posts 5, 11, and 12 you will see basic slings and the design:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/versions-of-chick-chairs-please.1166308/

 

[Chicalina]

Do you know who the owner is? I would take it home if you do. I wouldn't want a potentially Mareky chicken contaminating my coop and land. Sorry.

 

[koko365]

I would look over the legs along the entire leg up into the feathers for any redness, green bruising, or swelling. Examine the foot pads for scabs or cuts. Try making a chicken sling out of home things, to get it upright so it can eat and drink food placed in front. Resting the leg for a bit could help with healing if it is an injury or fracture. A balanced chicken feed would be best for giving all of the proper nutrients.

But keep in mind, something like Mareks disease could cause paralysis in one or both legs. A vitamin deficiency could cause curled under toes and sitting on hocks. Here is posts 5, 11, and 12 you will see basic slings and the design:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/versions-of-chick-chairs-please.1166308/

Thank you so much for your help. There is so much to read that I hardly know where to start. This is the first chicken that I have ever touched or held in my life so ... I really don't know what is normal or not, but will look closer at it later this afternoon. I bought some chicken feed at the local tractor supply store to put in the coop, but it won't touch it. Wouldn't drink water for me either but I did force a little water into it a day or two ago...sorta forced it's beak open to get a teaspoon in (but only did that two or three times over the last week). Hope it's eating or drinking when I'm not looking or watching.

These chickens are not owned by anybody. They live free-range in the neighborhood and travel at least two or three streets over in any direction. The coop that I have was built by friends about 5 years ago. I call it the coop for homeless chickens. It doesn't have any run. It's a 6 ft tall plywood thing with a roof, maybe six feet by 3 feet on the inside with a skinny (human sized) screen door with a broken hinge and a small opening (maybe 1 foot by 1 foot) on the ground that I've used a screen to keep this chicken penned inside it for a couple of days. I pushed a lawn chair up against the screen so no other critters could get in to hurt her.

It was about 5 years ago that a couple of other chickens moved into my back yard. They stayed a few months...raised about 8 chicks and then moved on their way and never came back. (That's when I found your site). I was sad when they left.... (oh well).

These three in my yard now might be related. I have no way to know. No one takes care of these... but I usually put out bird seed and peanuts for blue jays and squirrels and for the last 2 months have been buying scratch feed to put out in the yard too. I have a bird feeder the chickens jump into and ... other birds and squirrels do too.

 

[koko365]

I just wanted to mention that many of the links from that poultry podiatry list are dead or no longer live to read any info.

 

[Red Mangrove]

It's very odd to hear of a bird being injured from falling. I've had over 100 birds for two years sleeping in trees outside, and some of these are very large breeds such as Brahma and Indio Gigante. No injuries from falling here, ever

I would suspect human cruelty or predation to be involved here. A freak accident is possible I suppose, but seems unlikely in my experience

 

[koko365]

Well... I don't know what happened to it. No one comes in my yard and it certainly wasn't any cruelty from my daughter and me. We do have an occasional raccoon in the neighborhood, but haven't seen one of those in maybe three years.

It was just laying under the tree hurt when we came out in the morning. I did suspect maybe the rooster pushed it out of the tree or it just lost it's balance. Maybe he was making advances? He seems pretty horny with her. He doesn't mate with the other hen so maybe that one is a daughter. I donno. They do go up very high into the tree.

I suspected maybe it was hit by a car or something like that, but my daughter thinks it would have never made it back into our yard if that was the case. I do have a fenced in yard and the chickens and rooster usually jump the fence to come and go as they please.

Could an owl have done something or a hawk? This is a big chicken though.

There are a couple of stray cats in my yard, but I feed them and they don't usually pay any attention at all to the chickens and rooster. The cats only seem to watch the blue jays and squirrels and lizards.

There's no outward appearance of any wound. There's no blood. It's very alert, but doesn't look happy. I would guess it's hurting since it can't walk...it does flop around a lot sometimes, does tumble over like it's doing sommersaults (is that what they used to be called)? lol... I'll probably have to chase it a bit to put it back in the coop before dark. I could leave it on the ground all night, but don't feel right about that.

What else can I do?
None of the links have worked... and it's not a chick... it's an adult hen.
I don't know how to help it.

.... I should probably stop worrying about it....

 

[Red Mangrove]

If you can easily catch it then I would put it in a dog kennel with food and water for a few days. If you can't easily catch it, then it'll probably be fine. That looks like a gamefowl and they're very tough unless something unusual is going on. Hopefully there's no sickness or anything

 

[Eggcessive]

Dog crates are very good for treating a sick or injured chicken. Put something over the top for shade though. Does your coop have any ventilation? In Florida, many coops are just fencing on 1-3 sides with a roof to keep cool and ventilated in hot weather. Since she is wild, she might not eat or drink when you are around. Is the new food a balanced chicken layer or flock raiser feed? It’s good that you are trying to help her. If it isn’t an injury, then Mareks disease might be an issue. There is no cure, and it can kill them with paralysis and tumors. Most starve from not being able to reach food and water. How high is the tree limb they are roosting in?

 

[koko365]

Here's an update: I let her out of the coop yesterday and while she is not healed up completely, she is doing better. She can sit up now instead of just laying with her legs out straight beside her... she can hop around better... but she still flops around too. I let her out because the rooster and the other hen where in the yard yesterday, but as soon as they went up into the tree (and she couldn't follow) my daughter helped me corral her and we put her back in the coop. I plan to keep her in there today....

I made her scrambled eggs and put slices of ham on top cut really small...(deli ham), might be too salty...gave these to her last night but it looks like only ants have been eating them. I put down that diatomaceous earth to try to smoother those ants around the door to the coop... I'm sure there are more under the pine shavings though.

She has a small container of water that I've been getting the pine shavings out of and re-filling with fresh water like 4 times per day. I didn't know what to buy for food so I got her Purina Start and Grow medicated crumbles thinking that might be good for her and also got Dumor organic layer crumble ..so she has a small container of each of those plus more human canned mixed veggies plus meal worms mixed in in yet another container.

Posting a photo of the tree in the yard -- and they do go up very high into it. Plus a pic of the rooster and the other hen dust bathing in the yard not far from the coop and a photo of the coop. The bottom entrance has a screen, the door is a screen and there was another window up high on the side but the screen is half broken so I stapled a dish towel over that so no critters could climb into it at night. The lawn chair is holding the door closed because the latch is broken and the plastic crate is holding the screen closed on just the edge of it so she can easily look out - over the bottom entrance. Just so she doesn't push it out with her body weight.

I think I will keep her inside tomorrow....not sure yet. When I did try to look at her leg it seemed like she did not want to bend it. The good one bent fine, but this one that is hurt is very stiff and I wasn't going to force it.