chicken stroke or broken leg- what to do?

[aggiemae]

Our Moran was on the floor of the coop this morning She was sitting upright but and not moving

She was fine last night and behaved normally all day yesterday

She is alert but seems sleepy

Her left foot is perching but the right foot seems week and she won't /can't perch on it

She flaps her wings and they seem strong

She doesn't lay regularly but her vet looks normal though I don't know how to feel for an egg inside

I have never wormed my chickens

They get 16% protein feed but they do free range most of the day

She is usually the last her off the perch but today she was on the floor and the rest of them were still on the perch when I went to let them out. So I suspect that she fell off the roost after what ever happened to her though she is a large heavy hen so I can't rule out that she injured herself due to falling or jumping down on the side of the perch that is more narrow.


I am going to separate her and put food and water near by and wait for any thoughts or advice.

 

[AnimalsComeFirst]

Is there any scabs, sores or open wounds on either of her legs? Check the bottom of her feet as well. Are any of your other chickens acting this way? When you touch her leg, does she pull back or react like she's in pain? It could be a sprained or broken bone in one of her legs, maybe from falling off a roost. It may be not a problem and heal over, but if she's not able to walk, seperate her and provide food and water close to her so she can eat and drink easily. Any other details will help me tell you whats wrong with the poor girl! Praying for her!


She could have a broken leg. I just scanned this thread and it sounded similar to your girl: http://www.chickencrossing.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5602

So, what I would suggest is to dissolve a 325mg asprin into a gallon of water and let her drink freely. If (I know alot of chicken raisers don't do vets, so this is just a option) you can and want to take her to a vet to have it looked at and set, you can do that within a price range of probably 50 - 90 dollars. Or you can try to splint it yourself: http://www.lbah.com/word/fractured-bird-leg/ Research a little more about broken legs with chickens, and you may find some other advice that may help you out. Keep me updated on what happens!

 

[aggiemae]

Thanks for the advice. She has no outward injuries of any kind. And no reaction at all when I touch her limp leg or foot though the other foot reacts normally.


I just cleaned the coop and found three large (6X6) paches of what appeared to be water under her normal roost spot. They didn't appear to have anything solid in them at all. We have stall dry on the floor for easy clean up and I couldn't scoop them at all. We looked her over top to bottom and when my son lifted Dumpling into her little coop she pooped the same thing, wet clear with streaks of white on the floor.there was so much that I needed two paper towles to soak it up. It wasn't slimy, had light but normal poop smell and there wasn't any blood but I soaked two paper towels to dry it up.

I made her a scrambled egg and gave her water, but so far she refused both. I will start her on clear electrolytes by dropper and will give her some polyvisol.

None of the other chicken have any symptoms so. I am thinking I should clean the coop today.

I will keep checking back for answers and will post again in a couple of hours if she's still not eating.

 

[AnimalsComeFirst]

http://pluckandfeather.com/chicken-poo-chart-graphic.html

Look at the link above (its nasty, I know) and see which poop matches hers.

The only other thing I can think is Marreks disease. Are any other birds exhibiting these symptoms?

 

[aggiemae]

Thanks for the help. Sadly Dumpling died about five minutes after my second post. I was filling her water with electrolyte powder, she looked up at me, her head fell forward and she was gone.

I went out to the coop at 2AM to check on them because my neighbor neglect his burn pile and ended up having a small fire in his yard. The smoke was blowing away from our property and they were all sleeping on the perch. Usually Dumpling is the one who waked me up and gets me out to open the coop. but this morning at 6:30, an hour earlier than usual, Elizabeak was squawking her head off when I opened the coop and I found Dumpling stilling on the floor. She was dead by 9AM.

The other five hens seem normal, their poops are normal and we got four eggs today. I swept then vacuumed the sand out of the coop and raked out the run. Then I washed all the hard surfaces down with 10% bleach solution. I also replaced the bedding in the nest boxes and spent a couple of hours raking up the rest of the yard.

I am wondering if she was poisoned by pesticides or something in the soil so I have started blocking off the access to area between our fence line and our Laural hedge since I noticed today that there isn't a single weed in the entire 3 foot wide by 180 long foot area. I think that our neighbor might have sprayed even though we have asked him not to. I think I will wait and have my husband will go over to talk to him though I would prefer to remove the chain link fence and erect a solid one.

 

[AnimalsComeFirst]

Thanks for the help. Sadly Dumpling died about five minutes after my second post. I was filling her water with electrolyte powder, she looked up at me, her head fell forward and she was gone.

I went out to the coop at 2AM to check on them because my neighbor neglect his burn pile and ended up having a small fire in his yard. The smoke was blowing away from our property and they were all sleeping on the perch. Usually Dumpling is the one who waked me up and gets me out to open the coop. but this morning at 6:30, an hour earlier than usual, Elizabeak was squawking her head off when I opened the coop and I found Dumpling stilling on the floor. She was dead by 9AM.

The other five hens seem normal, their poops are normal and we got four eggs today. I swept then vacuumed the sand out of the coop and raked out the run. Then I washed all the hard surfaces down with 10% bleach solution. I also replaced the bedding in the nest boxes and spent a couple of hours raking up the rest of the yard.

I am wondering if she was poisoned by pesticides or something in the soil so I have started blocking off the access to area between our fence line and our Laural hedge since I noticed today that there isn't a single weed in the entire 3 foot wide by 180 long foot area. I think that our neighbor might have sprayed even though we have asked him not to. I think I will wait and have my husband will go over to talk to him though I would prefer to remove the chain link fence and erect a solid one.

Sorry about dumpling. That may be it, keep me updated when you find out what it is!