Broken legs

[ChickenTenderer]

Our Rhoad Island Red and our Buff Orpington both broke their legs falling off their roosting bar. I feel extremely bad for them, and guilty because I clipped their wings. It happened right after I clipped their wings. My question is, because they couldn't jump up onto the landing and then onto the roost, I physically have been roosting them on a lower bar inside of the coop, should I be doing this? I'm not babying them am I?The Rhoad Island Red looks like she has finally heeled, but the Buff Orpington is still limping. In the morning when I let them all out,(we have 14 hens) I again pick up the two injured hens up off their roost and put them down. The Rhoad Island Red is only out of habit. Any input from anyone? Also, it seems the Buff is taking a long time to heal.

 

[Venevee]

If the legs are broken, letting them walk on it will only worsen the injury. Their legs won't heal right and will result in future injuries. Please try to get a vet for your chickens if you can. If you absolutely cannot afford a vet, buy leg wrap and straighten their leg to a natural position, wrap the leg with cotton squares and then wrap their legs (tightly and firmly, without support the wrap is useless) with the wrap. Tape it, and confine your birds from the rest of the flock. Unwrap every day or every two days to check on their legs and progress. DO NOT let them walk on their legs until the leg is healed and they no longer limp. Once their leg appears healed, make sure it is straight and is structurally comparable to the rest of the flocks legs.
One thing I would like to ask is though, why did you clip your birds wings?
And since your birds wings are clipped now, make sure they don't roost high up anymore, so that no others get injured. My personal opinion is clipping a birds wings is asking for disaster. Birds have wings and feathers for a reason, and it is cruel to remove that from them.

 

[ChickenTenderer]

We clipped their wings because they were flying over the fence to get into our garden, and one hen was repeadly flying over another fence where we keep our dog. Our dog roughed her up a bit to the point where if we hadn't gone out to check on them, she could have been killed. That's another thing we will continue to work on, is the relationship between our cattle dog/border collie and our chickens.

 

[junebuggena]

Hurt their joints and soft tissue or actually fractured leg bones? Big difference. Sounds like they just got a bit sprained/bruised and not actual broken bones, especially if one is back to normal now without treatment.

 

[ChickenTenderer]

Yes, we did check their legs and no bones were sticking out nor any lumps. The injured get warm to the touch. Thank you everyone! We'll continue to watch the Buff, I'll keep roosting her.