Chicken limping badly

[aa89]

Hi all, we've got a few chickens at home and one of our cockrels had a slight limp one day, but over the course of 10 days i'd say, it's got to the point where he's struggling to stand up and maintain his balance. He's eating/drinking fine. It's his left leg which he's having difficulties with, we've inspected it physically and can't see no injuries to the leg or foot such as bumble foot.

Since yesterday, we've kept him inside in a box with hay to limit his movement and let him out every 1-2 hours so he can get fresh air.

We don't really want to put him down as he is one of our favourite!

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[MrsRubbler]

Hi aa89!
Have you seen any improvement since you've put him on "box rest"? If you don't see/feel anything structurally and it's only effecting one leg, my initial thought would be a pulled muscle? I'm certainly not an expert and maybe someone else will have a better idea, but I think give him a few more days of limited movement in the box with plenty of food and water and see if he improves. Good luck! Curious to read what the experts say!

 

[aa89]

Hi MrsRubbler, Well he's slept in the box last night which was in the kitchen, but during the day we got him on an old piece of carpet which has food/water next to him and he's just been sat down.

Since it started, it had a small noticeable limp and day by day it's gotten worser, now he's struggling to stand up and maintain his balance so when he's sat on the old carpet, he makes no effort to stand up. What puzzles me is, he's getting worser day by day. I read something about mareks disease, i hope he doesn't have that.

Thanks, and will keep you posted. thanks.