Bumble foot? Gout? Break? Sprain?

Buggawug

Hatching
Jan 20, 2021
1
0
3
Hello! I am hoping for some help! I do not have a vet that will see chickens, except for euthanasia purposes.

I have a six year old chicken who is standing on one leg and has a limp when she walks. I noticed this for about four days outside then I brought her inside and she has been inside for a full week tomorrow with no change in either direction.
She seems reasonably happy, eating and drinking, tail up, walks around some rooting for food and looking around and pooping normally. I have cleaned her feet and put on olive oil and or Vaseline on everyday thinking she maybe has scaly leg mites and that is causing the limping and holding one foot up. I notice her nails are overgrown and am working on trimming those down as well.
She does have a lot of redness on the pad of one foot. It is the foot she is standing on not the foot she is holding up so I assumed that it must be from the pressure of standing on it all the time not from bumble foot. I can’t say I ever looked closely at her feet before so I don’t know the color they normally should be. I gave half a baby aspirin for a couple days but there seems to be conflicting information on that and how much so I discontinued as to not cause more harm than good. I should note that a night or two before I noticed this issue she and my one other chicken left slept on top of their coop instead of inside. I know the chicken in question has had trouble getting down in the past and often would stay up there until I put her down so I think there may be an injury from getting down potentially. I have felt her legs, feet and thighs and nothing seems notably out of place, painful or hot. I will attach pictures and hopefully someone can give me some guidance as to what to do and what it may be.
I attached photos of how she stands with one foot up. One of the red foot she is standing on. One of the foot she is holding up (The less red of the two) and the tops of her feet potentially showing scaly leg mites and overgrown nails.
 

Attachments

  • 0C79388F-8ADC-46C9-A709-A0867756703B.jpeg
    0C79388F-8ADC-46C9-A709-A0867756703B.jpeg
    338.6 KB · Views: 14
  • 7B3A5394-9BD2-4127-BA2E-2DAD7B061E59.jpeg
    7B3A5394-9BD2-4127-BA2E-2DAD7B061E59.jpeg
    301.1 KB · Views: 12
  • EFDC0F4B-A840-46D7-AB81-0A0B3CEC29E3.jpeg
    EFDC0F4B-A840-46D7-AB81-0A0B3CEC29E3.jpeg
    344.5 KB · Views: 11
  • D06FE3EF-BA11-4A8E-A8AE-AEC64C327306.jpeg
    D06FE3EF-BA11-4A8E-A8AE-AEC64C327306.jpeg
    387 KB · Views: 12
It would be good to get her dog crate inside the coop if possible, so that she can remain a part of the flock. Being gone for more than a week, the others might pick on her when she is better. Leg or hip injuries can be very common. Forcing rest might help, but I have seen one of my older hens limp for a couple of years before she died. Another hen got better after 6 weeks or so. Treating leg mites is good. If you have a vet who might prescribe meloxicam, that can be helpful to help with pain and inflammation. I don’t see any bumblefoot. Hopefully,,she will get better soon.
 
Her nails are overgrown and I would think that might cause some problems. I don't see any signs of bumblefoot though. You might want to keep an eye on the tiny dark spots, but she may just have spotted feet, a couple of mine do. Have you tried soaking her feet in a warm epsom salt bath? My guess is that since you saw her on top of the coop is that she injured herself when she flew down. Opal, the bird in my picture, sprained her leg when she decided to fly off our porch with the rest of our flock (Sigh, Opal can't really fly...) We checked her multiple times to eliminate any other cause of limping and soaked her feet in epsom salts a few times. We also tried separating her for faster healing, but she did not tolerate it at all. The others didn't pick on her, she didn't seem to be in any pain and she was able to keep up while free ranging, so we let her stay with the group. Her leg took almost 4 months to heal. Hope yours feels better soon 🙂
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom