Sprained leg? Ankle issues?

[Cade S]

Apologies for the duplicate thread, I've read each post that I could get my hands on on the topic and didn't necessarily felt like they matched our situation enough. I will also apologize in advance if I get terms wrong, I've pulled up a photo of chicken anatomy to try to make this as clear as possible, but let me know if there is a better word/term to use.

Patient: 17 week old light brahma, hen
Physical Attributes: she has always been the runt but within the last 5 ish weeks, she's caught up and is only slightly shorter than the rest of the hens.
Behavior, typical: active, can hold her own, but typically follows our bigger hens closely especially when the rooster is overzealous in his whooing (they don't put up with it whether he's whooing them or the others).
Behavior, current: more reserved, still eating & drinking, trying to get to food/water dishes; pushes through injury to get to treats, normal foraging behavior (minus scratching/searching out a spot of scratch, just using her head/beak).
Housing: large coop, with roosting ladder, large run with roosting bars and hiding spots (i.e. small sturdy tables they can hide under), well beyond the recommended sq ft per chicken, supervised trips out of run if weather is good.
Current treatment housing: Kept in dog kennel in a quiet,cozy place where I can control the lighting to help simulate sunset/sunrise, updated the floor cover from what is captured in below photos (put old vinyl flooring scraps from coop flooring down and covered with fresh pine shavings).

Symptoms:

• not putting weight on right leg, hopping to get around.
• She will either sit or she's standing on her good leg with the bad one pulled up curled under her.
• Bad leg is skinner than good leg, but just barely enough to realize with your hand.
• Bad ankle joint is a bit more swollen, but not warm/inflamed.
• She pulls her leg to her when I touch her ankle joint and tarsometatarsus. I can move her leg without her fighting it, trying to take her leg away, but she doesn't enjoy it (not that I blame her).
• She seems to be standing oddly on her hurt leg.
  • The photos and videos I've linked below don't seem to do it justice, but it looks like the ankle is more centered under her body, while the foot is more pointed out.

Items checked/symptoms checked for:

• No obvious wounds, punctures, splinters, etc., and she tolerated a shallow epsom salt bath for her leg.
• No paralysis.
• Not using wing(s) to balance. Foot and toes don't seem to be bothering her and she will wrap her toes around my fingers.
• Comb/wattles are healthy color now that she's been brought in and being provided water and food within her reach.
• She's not as defensive or "crying" anymore.
• Feces are normal after the first two hours of her being in the house.
• She's been examined for indicators of illness/mites/lice/etc. and I think this is purely a physical injury.

Link to videos from last night and today
Dropbox link to Chicken folder

My questions:

• What potentially is her issue and how should I continue treating her? I've got the tools to splint or wrap her legs snug, but not sure what direction to head in to get her on the path to healing.
• How should I make her more comfortable?
• At what point do I need to start considering humanely dispatching a physical injury?
• Are there any indicators I should be looking for to make sure she doesn't take a turn for the worse?

 

[DotToDot]

It sounds like you’ve done a lot of research and are really trying to help your hen. Good job! Having a hurt chicken is always rough.
When you say ’cozy’ in relation to the dog crate, about how big is it? Big enough for her to walk around a bit? I’m honestly not sure if walking would help or hurt, but I’m going to lean towards hurt.
It’s not bumblefoot, which I would have assumed. My second assumption would have been that it’s actually her hip. Have you checked for that? Also, if the roosts in the coop are pretty high (or if there are prehaps branches that the chickens can fly up on), she may have sprained it flying down and landing hard.
I’m going to do some research as well, but I would say she’s heading in the direction of needing a splint.
Hope this helps!!

 

[Moricha]

Hi Cade! This is sounding pretty similar to an injury my chicken is experiencing right now. Do you mind sharing an update or outcome for your hen? Did you end up splinting or going with any particular treatment?

 

[Cade S]

Hi Cade! This is sounding pretty similar to an injury my chicken is experiencing right now. Do you mind sharing an update or outcome for your hen? Did you end up splinting or going with any particular treatment?

Hey! I kept her separated for a few days. It definitely was a sprain.

My treatment for her:
1. Nutri-drench in her water as well as a serving of it straight to her as she was super pale and listless (edit this was about a day after I made this post. I also was handfeeding her for a bit).
2. I didn't see any evidence of cuts, splinters, etc. but soaked her leg in an epsom salt bath for as long as she would tolerate it.
3. Once she was dry, I wrapped her leg in the stretchy self-adhesive bandage wrap. We had to make some adjustments to it so she could still sit and such while still keeping the ankle stable. We thought about using tongue depressors on both sides of her leg, but wanted to keep her as comfortable as possible.
4. Over the next few days, we closely monitored her and kept her moving so her leg wouldn't get stiff and to help with the swelling.

Once she would let me move the leg without major signs of distress, we removed the bandage wrap and kept her in for another day. We debated on whether or not we keep her in until she was comfortable on her leg again, but decided to reintroduce her back to the flock after going over the run and coop to remove or change anything that might have caused her injury (I'm thinking she might have tripped over one of my lower roosting branches. Within a week of being back with the flock, she was back to her normal self.

 

[Cade S]

It sounds like you’ve done a lot of research and are really trying to help your hen. Good job! Having a hurt chicken is always rough.
When you say ’cozy’ in relation to the dog crate, about how big is it? Big enough for her to walk around a bit? I’m honestly not sure if walking would help or hurt, but I’m going to lean towards hurt.
It’s not bumblefoot, which I would have assumed. My second assumption would have been that it’s actually her hip. Have you checked for that? Also, if the roosts in the coop are pretty high (or if there are prehaps branches that the chickens can fly up on), she may have sprained it flying down and landing hard.
I’m going to do some research as well, but I would say she’s heading in the direction of needing a splint.
Hope this helps!!

Thank you so much for your reply. I didn't realize that I didn't actually post my reply to you. I don't know if it was the splint or the rest, but she was back on her feet and with her flock within a week and back to using her leg as normal within a week of being back with her flock.

 

[Moricha]

Hey! I kept her separated for a few days. It definitely was a sprain.

My treatment for her:
1. Nutri-drench in her water as well as a serving of it straight to her as she was super pale and listless (edit this was about a day after I made this post. I also was handfeeding her for a bit).
2. I didn't see any evidence of cuts, splinters, etc. but soaked her leg in an epsom salt bath for as long as she would tolerate it.
3. Once she was dry, I wrapped her leg in the stretchy self-adhesive bandage wrap. We had to make some adjustments to it so she could still sit and such while still keeping the ankle stable. We thought about using tongue depressors on both sides of her leg, but wanted to keep her as comfortable as possible.
4. Over the next few days, we closely monitored her and kept her moving so her leg wouldn't get stiff and to help with the swelling.

Once she would let me move the leg without major signs of distress, we removed the bandage wrap and kept her in for another day. We debated on whether or not we keep her in until she was comfortable on her leg again, but decided to reintroduce her back to the flock after going over the run and coop to remove or change anything that might have caused her injury (I'm thinking she might have tripped over one of my lower roosting branches. Within a week of being back with the flock, she was back to her normal self.

Wow! Thank you for such a thorough response. So happy to hear you had a positive outcome for your chicken and hear what worked for you!

I’ve been considering using an epsom salt bath for treatment, thinking it may be a good idea since her injury is also presenting as a sprain. Definitely going to give this a try and see if it helps a bit. Thanks again.

 

[Cade S]

Wow! Thank you for such a thorough response. So happy to hear you had a positive outcome for your chicken and hear what worked for you!

I’ve been considering using an epsom salt bath for treatment, thinking it may be a good idea since her injury is also presenting as a sprain. Definitely going to give this a try and see if it helps a bit. Thanks again.

A good Epsom soak was Grammy's fix for everything (or at least step one). Muscle soreness? Go soak. Joint pain? Go soak. Splinter? Wound care? Infection? Swelling? You guessed it, go soak.

Hope your chicken feels better soon!