11 month old hen with a bad leg.

[DollyGirl64]

I have an issue with one of my RIR pullets. She has been raised with the rest of the flock since we got them last February but started limping when we moved them from the inside brooder to the coop in our barn. Fast forward to several months later and she is basically hopping on her good leg and mostly holding up the bad one. I took her to an avian vet who saw and felt nothing abnormal. She was put on antibiotics and pain medication for 10 days and isolated in a dog crate within the coop. I tried putting her with the rest of the flock and observed ZERO change in her condition. The "mean girls" also went after her as they did before. Now the vet suggests x-rays and additional pain killers for a month. And further confinement. I cannot pay $200 for x-rays just to be told a) it's genetic or b) she needs surgery which I can't afford either. Has anyone else had a similar situation? Will prolonged confinement help? I have an issue with one of my RIR pullets. She has been raised with the rest of the flock since we got them last February but started limping when we moved them from the inside brooder to the coop in our barn. Fast forward to several months later and she is basically hopping on her good leg and mostly holding up the bad one. I took her to an avian vet who saw and felt nothing abnormal. She was put on antibiotics and pain medication for 10 days and isolated in a dog crate within the coop. I tried putting her with the rest of the flock and observed ZERO change in her condition. The "mean girls" also went after her as they did before. Now the vet suggests x-rays and additional pain killers for a month. And further confinement. I cannot pay $200 for x-rays just to be told a) it's genetic or b) she needs surgery which I can't afford either. Has anyone else had a similar situation? Will prolonged confinement help?

 

[azygous]

Lameness is one of the most difficult issues to diagnose and treat in chickens. It can have so many different causes, and most of them are not treatable.

Unfortunately, most vets are in the same position you are in, not knowing enough about chicken disorders to make a diagnosis but using the procedures and medicines at their disposal to try to rule things out and eventually stumble on a treatment that works.

The way I try to diagnose a lameness issue is by trying benign treatments first for the most likely treatable causes. One of these is a vitamin deficiency that can cause lameness. So, go to the store where they sell vitamins for people. Pick up a bottle of vitamin B-complex and give one tablet each day to your chicken directly into her beak. Vitamin B-3, B-6, and B-12 can repair nerve connections and help to overcome the lameness. If you can find B-100 complex, it will have the most of these B vitamins.

Do this for two weeks and if there is improvement, continue giving the B-complex for another two weeks and see if improvement continues.

Other causes of lameness are injury, which only time can heal, or avian viruses which can cause complete lameness and no cure. You will suspect this if there is no improvement.

 

[DollyGirl64]

Lameness is one of the most difficult issues to diagnose and treat in chickens. It can have so many different causes, and most of them are not treatable.

Unfortunately, most vets are in the same position you are in, not knowing enough about chicken disorders to make a diagnosis but using the procedures and medicines at their disposal to try to rule things out and eventually stumble on a treatment that works.

The way I try to diagnose a lameness issue is by trying benign treatments first for the most likely treatable causes. One of these is a vitamin deficiency that can cause lameness. So, go to the store where they sell vitamins for people. Pick up a bottle of vitamin B-complex and give one tablet each day to your chicken directly into her beak. Vitamin B-3, B-6, and B-12 can repair nerve connections and help to overcome the lameness. If you can find B-100 complex, it will have the most of these B vitamins.

Do this for two weeks and if there is improvement, continue giving the B-complex for another two weeks and see if improvement continues.

Other causes of lameness are injury, which only time can heal, or avian viruses which can cause complete lameness and no cure. You will suspect this if there is no improvement.

Thank you so much for the advice! I was able to get B complex tablets; it was the last one on the shelf!!! I will start her on this tomorrow. The tablets look a little big..is it ok to cut them in half or will that compromise the ingredients?