are Austrolorps naturally "thick ankled "gals?

[steveg144]

Our hen Nigella (age unknown, she showed up before Christmas and adopted us) puts out an egg a day, without fail. This suggests she's not too elderly. However, the has THICK ankles, and in fact one of them is considerably thicker then the other. Much thicker than her coop-mate "Camilla" (the Leghorn). She seems perfectly normal and happy, so I don't think she has an obvious disease. Something to worry about?

 

[Judy]

My BA's have thicker legs than some of my other hens. Leghorns as I recall have pretty thin legs. However, one leg shouldn't be thicker than the other. I would check to see if I feel any warmth in the thicker ankle, which might indicate some sort of inflammatory or infectious process. I would also check for leg mites (evidenced by slightly raised scales on the legs.) Maybe she has an old injury and it just didn't heal up completely normally.