Broken leg? Need advice-no experience!

[neronotin]

Hi I'm new here. I volunteer at an animal rescue and brought home a chicken who has an injured leg so she could get some extra TLC. I don't know a whole lot about chickens so I'm hoping to get some great advice here. We will probably end up keeping this chicken as a pet if she ends up with an ok quality of life.

The story so far... Chicken was stepped on by a horse and doesn't seem to have use of the injured leg at all really. Initial injury happened around three weeks ago so splinting etc. would be of no use now I'd assume. Her appetite is and has been fine all along. She does kind of hobble around using her good leg and wing. She may also be using her bad leg to push herself up from a laying down position.

Any advice is appreciated! Does she have a chance at an ok quality of life as a somewhat sheltered pet at least? Should I take her to a vet at this point or is it not really needed? Do chickens recover from leg injurys?

Thanks so much for any input!

 

[lemurchaser]

Ideally you would do x-rays. If its dislocated it might be fixable still. If its broken and mis-set, you'd probably leave it alone.

She would likely do okay, if she's getting around all right. I would recommend getting her a friend though. Chickens are flock animals and shouldn't be alone.

 

[neronotin]

Thanks so much. We are taking her to the vet this afternoon to get checked out. She was also breathing heavily/wheezing last night. I think maybe she has a respiratory infection? Or do chickens snore? She had a little friend at the rescue who I could bring home for her if she's ok.

We may have to put her to sleep if she has other injuries that aren't apparent, we'll find out this afternoon.

Would it be ok/fair to keep her in a coop most of the time since she cant walk? I would want her to have a good quality of life if she makes it but I'm not exactly sure what that is for a chicken

Thanks again!

 

[Rocky Top Chick]

I recently nursed a broken leg back to fairly good health. We kept her in the house for 2 months, stabilized the leg, treated infection and worked with her daily. Just last week we put her back in with the rest of the girls and she is holding her own. They are not bothering her, but she does stay in the coop a lot. She does not have very good use of her leg, but she does use it like a crutch. If I had to do over, I do not think I would have gone to so much trouble just because it is very time consuming and that is something I don't really have working full time. I will keep a close eye on her and give her the best life every. If it happens again, I will probably cull. We all have to live and learn.

D.

 

[neronotin]

It's hard for me to know what to do

I don't have chickens (plural) just this one and I've never kept them before. I just brought her home to give her a chance and wouldn't mind keeping her as a pet!

I'm not that worried about the time even though I work full time too. I wish I could just stay home and take care of the chicken though LOL!

 

[neronotin]

Thank you all for the advice. We took her to the vet this afternoon and had to have her put down. Her leg wasn't broken after all she had nerve damage and a respritory infection. Since she couldn't use the leg and it didn't look like she would regain use we decided to let her go.

 

[lemurchaser]

I'm sorry to hear that. It sounds like you did the right thing for her though.

Chickens make great pets, maybe you can take another one (or 2) home.

 

[neronotin]

lemurchaser - Thank you. That means a lot to me. I'm pretty upset about having to make that tough decision. I brought her home because I wanted to do the best thing for her and in the end I guess it was to not let her suffer anymore. I was really hoping for a different outcome though. I was expecting that she just had a break that she'd recover from to some degree.

I imagined building her a little coup and stuff like that. I was already drawing up plans

I think once I get over this I probably will get a couple little pet chickens. I really like them!

Rest in Peace, Henny Penny, you had a name and a home even if it was brief.