For a long while now one of my hens has been walking by pulling her legs all the way up to her chest and by doing this she drags her feet along her chest as well. It's winter and wet, so right now her chest is all dirty. Not sure if this a just a strange bird or if maybe she has some problem. Any ideas?
Have you examined the bottoms of her feet? Is she a feather-footed breed? Sometimes poop and mud will get caked onto the feet, and chickens only have limited ability to clean them. You would need to scrub them in warm soapy water and dry them. She could have sores on the bottoms of her feet. They would require de-scabbing and cleaning out and bandaging so they could heal. If her feet are perfectly clean and healthy-looking, then you can attribute her funny walk to just being quirky.
So very interesting. I have two pullets walking the same way, one does it more often than the other but they don't walk like this all the time. Their feet are OK, It is just a funny way to walk. Both are splash Andalusians, the other 4 that I have do not walk that way. I wonder if anybody else has observed this behavior ????
