Can a chicken sprain its leg?

[EmAbTo48]

My only Rooster has been limping for the past 3 days, I can't find anything that looks cut, or bent wrong. He won't bare much weight on it... I thought after a few days he would be doing better, but its about the same.

Is there anything I should be looking for on him? Can they just bend it wrong??

I am going to wait it out, he's only 8 months old, and already such a sweet tempered roo, and amazing with all his hens very protective

Oh and all my chickens free range...the rest are fine, so don't believe he ran into some type of predator.

 

[BrattishTaz]

One of my roos did. He tripped over a weed. A week in a dog crate gave him enough time to heal. He was not a happy camper though. Just monitor him for any other symptoms, some illnesses can cause limping too.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Have you looked on the bottom of his foot for bumblefoot?

They can land wrong when getting off the roosts, so if it suddenly gets better that could be the reason.

 

[jjthink]

Once ruling out bumblefoot as noted above, as you may have already done, treat as though sprained. Make aspirin water (1 baby aspirin crushed into 1 cup water) as his drinking water, fresh batch twice daily. If the pain is causing him not to eat and drink normally, dunk cut up bits of favorite fruits in the aspirin water and hand feed, to begin to take the edge of the pain. Hopefully he will soon thereafter eat and drink on his own.
Try to keep him somewhere where he can't jump up onto or down off of things, so the injury is not worsened.
It can take some weeks to heal....
TLC, including nice warm cozy place to rest, helps

.
Since he and the girls are so bonded, perhaps for bedtime you can put him in a comfy large dog cage in with the girls so they can all see and chat with one another, but he can't jump....
JJ

 

[BrattishTaz]

The other posters are correct. I didn't even think to have you check his feet first.

 

[EmAbTo48]

I didn't see anything like bumblefoot but ill make sure to look more clearly when I get home. I hope its not that, I don't want the rest to get it!

If I don't see it, I am going to do what you said for a sprain!

Thanks!