Broken leg / foot? Help please!

[Gypsy07]

Just found one of my hens holding her leg up and hopping around. Hanging out near the stables so possibly been bumped by a horse, but I'm not sure... Anyway, there's a bit of blood on her leg just above the ankle area, and the foot is swollen up and feels limp. No twitching, no reflexes. Just hanging there. Is is most likely broken, and if so, what's the best thing to do about it? Is it treatable? Splint? Or would I be better dispatching her quickly to avoid any unneccessary suffering? I've brought her inside and sat her in a box while I decide what to do next...

 

[Gypsy07]

So I brought my neighbour round to help me, and we got a better look at the injury. We figure the hen must have been clipped by the edge of a hoof. The leg is wiggling side to side in a horrible way it really shouldn't be doing so we reckon it is definitely broken. Phoned neighbour's brother who's a vet; he said to clean it up and splint it as best we could, so that's what I've done. Hen is now tucked up in a cardboard box with food and water. She's eating and drinking and actually looks fairly perky, so just maybe she'll be okay.

I dissolved some aspirin in her water, what else should I be doing? I thought maybe a basic antibiotic in her water too but I'll have to wait till tomorrow to get that. Worried I didn't immobilise the leg properly, but also worried if I strap it up any tighter, I might cut off the blood supply. The foot is already very swollen...

Does anyone have any advice for me? Has anyone successfully healed a broken leg before?

 

[little_grey_bantam]

Similar thing happened to mine, just splint it up and it'll come out alright.
My birds leg is a wee bit crooked, but she runs around, pecks me and does all teh chicken things she does. It's been nearly 2 years ago

lol

They will survive it!

Just keep at it!

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
Thanks so much for that, it's just what I wanted to hear. How long did your hen take for her leg to to heal then?
Was it ages? Did you have to keep her as still as possible while she was recovering?

 

[Gypsy07]

Can anyone please tell me how long a broken leg should take to heal? Pleeeeeaassssseeee!!!

 

[Gypsy07]

So I decided to get my hen a professional diagnosis. Looked on the internet and found a recommended avian vet not too far away. He had a quick look and said straight away that the leg was definitely broken and as it was a compound fracture (through the skin) that there was a high risk of infection, but that sorting it out was still possible. I left her with him for an X-ray so he could find out exactly what had happened to the leg. He mentioned splinting and strapping, but said that hens do much better with external pinning of the bone. I went home worrying about the probable cost of doing this but fully expecting to be caring for a hen with a metal leg brace for the next few weeks. I was kinda looking forward to having a bionic chicken! And I was also mentally preparing myself for explaining to my boyfriend and other people why I thought this was finanically justifiable and a better thing to do than just having her for dinner and then buying a replacement hen!

Anyway, the vet called me back a few hours later and said that the X-ray showed that the bone wasn't just broken, it was totally shattered over a 2cm length, meaning that there wasn't enough good bone left in there to allow for pinning or splinting of any sort. He said that any form of treatment would be almost certain to fail, and that attempting it would cause the hen needless pain and distress. So there really wasn't any option left but to put her to sleep.

I'm just telling this story because I now know that if I'd left her in my home made splint, she would have gone through an awful lot of suffering, and she'd have died in the end anyway.

So this cost me £55 and the purchase price of the hen was only £10, but I still feel it was money well spent.

 

[Fluffy-Butt-Farms]

you have a very big heart. i'm sorry about you chicken. there are a few on here i'd prob get killed for if i took them to the vet, but i would. the rest would just end up in the burn pit.

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

. I'm so sorry.

 

[janjan1]

It has happened twice to me. Both times I've had one of my horses step on a chicken, ultimately breaking a leg. I've put on vetwrap to stabilize the break, with gauze under the vet wrap to cushion the wrap, and placed in a cage for a few weeks. That way they avoid the other chickens, less stress and more time to heal. Both hens have healed and walk with a limp, but alive, scratching, eating and producing eggs. I did keep them caged for about 8 weeks. But they were in the barn for socialization with the other chickens.
Jan

 

[mylittlezoo]

I had a goat step on a guinea - I splinted her and she healed just fine. I gave extra protein and calcium for the first few weeks to help boost things along.