3mo Ameraucana Pullet with swollen upper leg, blood

[Maravilla]

Hello all, I searched but haven't found a match with this condition. This speckled biddy started limping slightly almost two weeks ago but was, and is still, walking, jumping, foraging, eating and drinking with her sisters, which we bought as hatchlings. They're integrating with 7 older birds gradually, but maybe this injury was from an altercation or a high jump down, we're not sure. She was limping more so we caught her and find a tightly swollen upper "drumstick" area, not hotter than the other normal leg but a dark scabby almost paperlike spot behind with dark behind it. All the nonfeathered part of the leg looks normal. On the second warm Epsom bath an opening below the scabby part oozed out dark syrupy liquid followed by a little red blood, no pus or smell. Iodine and antibiotic cream, she seemed content. The rest of the swelling seems to be herself, like white-cream muscle and tendon, as opposed to infection or tumor, but it's hard to tell without making an incision. She's still limping, it's still tight, but she still doesn't seem to have pain when we move her leg or touch the area, even when we pressed gently to get that stuff to drain. Any ideas on what the injury is and what we should do? She's not growing as much as her sisters, which isn't a worry as much as the limping. (Oh, no mites, no lesions, no abnormal stool in anyone so far, no clear evidence of a break yet.) Pic below is when it was draining.

 

[alinas2010]

Hello, sorry to hear of the troubles with this chicken. To be clear, about how old is she? It’s possible she wounded herself which resulted in a bruise and wound with a scab over it…although what you’re describing sounds a little odd.

Have you seen any pus come out of it? Chicken pus is cheese like and white or off white. It reminds me of cheese curds sort of.

The angle of the pic makes it a little hard to see well. Could you get some really well lit, clear pictures of the wound from different angles and I’ll tag the educators. @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @azygous

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you get some clear well lit photos of the wound and of her?

Thanks!

 

[Maravilla]

Thank you! We will try to get better pics; she's pretty active and the run is large, so we were planning on grabbing her tonight for a checkup. No indications of pus at all (visible nor smell), which surprised us. The dark thick liquid drained until some fresh-looking red blood came out and then stopped. We palpitated but everything else was firm and nothing else came out. If it looks like there's more liquid anything in there tonight we will try a third epsom bath.