Need advice! Adult (12 weeks) chicken with one splayed leg and all the others are thin

[Chicken n duck]

We just got some chickens about a month ago. Mixed breed from some chinese silk chickens. All were/seemd healthy. The woman/breeder told us to feed them with what we call here "baby 1" chicken feed that came with them and buy "baby 2" feed and mix it together and then switch to only baby 2 feed. We did that. The chickens have a good house they live in but the arrived sooner than we expected so they are just in a temporary cage (which is pretty big) but don't have a door to go outside, can only go when we let them out so they haven't been so much out. They have clean water and food. Get some weeds (is that the word) from the garden and have a large branch that they can sit on and play on. Clean cage.

We have ducks in the same house but in also a separate cage, they don't see each other and the chicken don't seem to be afraid of them.

Now the problem is that suddenly one chicken (rooster I think) got a splayed leg. One leg just sticks out to the side and he can't really walk on it. Then we noticed that the chicken are all pretty skinny (I couln't really see it by husband did because he takes more care of them you can't really see well because their feathers are like puffy with a lot of down like the chinese silk chickens.

Do you know what has happened?
I heard also that the feed MIGHT be salmonella contaminated, it was in the news but only some of the babyfeed was being called back but we finished ours so might this be a result of salmonella if our chicken have it?
How can we check if the chickens have salmonella? They seem to feel well except being skinny.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Judy]

The leg problem may be an injury related to the cage. They can catch their toes on them and injure themselves, or something else might have happened to it. If you can examine it closely, you might be able to feel a fracture, which you can splint with Vet Wrap. Sometimes they will heal normally if the fracture isn't displaced. There's a good chance wou will end up with a crippled chicken, though. I'll give you a link with lots of info on foot and leg problems.

Salmonella is funny stuff. Many chickens already have it. It's a matter of the strain, but also the quantity. A quick Google search will give lots of info.

Two things to think about are worms and lice/mites. Yours are really a little young to be so infested with worms that it is causing them to lose weight, or not gain. I'm not sure what chinese silk chickens are, but if they are what is usually called Silkies here, the are very prone to lice/mites, although certainly any chickens can get them. They are carried by wild birds. The link shows what they look like and how to check for them. If you wish, your vet may be willing to do a fecal exam for worms for a modest fee, even if he doesn't treat chickens, which most vets don't.

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ll-seeing-live-worms-in-poo/0_20#post_9315842

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/818674/are-these-some-kind-of-egg-clusters/0_20#post_11897957