Another injured leg!

[showbizombie]

My husband found one of my orpingtons had gotten stuck on her back in an awkward position between the shed and the compost bin. I'm not sure how long she'd been there (no more than a few hours) but it was hot and she was panting. I hand fed her water, brought her inside to cool down, and shes eating bread soaked in water with no problems.

However she's supporting herself on her right wing, and her right leg sits further back than the left, and twists slightly inwards. I tried to feel for any breaks but I couldn't find anything obvious, but it's my first time so I'm also not really sure what I should be looking for. There's no open wounds, no swelling on the scaley bit (cant tell on the other, shes so fluffy). She can move her legs/toes fine (she curls them around my fingers if i place them there) and can stand ok but not walk, and doesnt react any different from me touching one leg from the other. She doesnt react any differently if I manually stretch the leg.

Shes acting fine from what I can tell, clucking every now and then and eagerly eating.

Is there any obvious way to confirm that it's a break? Is it possible its something less nasty? There's no farm vets near me, so for now I have her in a large dog crate with food and water inside. Should I be keeping her warm (after being dehydrated) or will she be fine with just room temperature? How often should I check for her ability to walk? It's only been an hour since we found her so still early days.

 

[CMV]

I would let her rest and limit her mobility the remainder of the day and then see what you find in the morning. It sounds like she had a pretty stressful day, so she could use the rest. A fracture is going to swell like crazy overnight, bruise up significantly and get hot to the touch. If she is showing none of that by morning, then she is probably going to be fine. She might just have a sprain/strain.

Good luck.

 

[showbizombie]

Oh thank you! I'll check her out in the morning for those.. fingers crossed
I've been checking on her during the night and shes been panting, not sure if its just because suddenly there's a light on and shes a bit spooked or something else - she has water right in front of her (thought i havent seen her drink from it yet - only managed to palm her water right after we found her) but she was still sort of interested in soggy bread.

 

[showbizombie]

Checked her out in the morning and still couldn't find anything that suggested an obvious break. I took her to a regular vet since they were willing to have a look at her, and she believed that nothing was broken either, gave her some pain meds and told us to watch over the weekend for any signs of improvement - if not then we'd take her to the specialist 1.5hrs away.

Now it's monday and she's quite happy to hobble around, and is no longer using her wing to support her. Still limping all the time, and gets tired out easily, so I've kept her in the crate for now but it seems like she'll recover

 

[seminolewind]

Awww, poor baby. She may have injured her leg and tried to hide from the others by sqeezing in there. Anyway, seems she's on the mend. I had a hen once who I believe injured her hip. She limped for weeks before she got better.

Is she still panting?

 

[showbizombie]

No more panting, I think it was just her being spooked every time we entered the room, because when we started talking to her (chicken noises) she'd talk back and calm down/stop panting, haha!

As of today she's back outside with the other hens and doing great, still limping a little but she likes to show that she can still run perfectly fine.

 

[CMV]

Glad to hear it. I hope she continues to mend.

Good luck with her.