Chicken walking unbalanced? Leaning a little.

[OhDangBro]

Hey all,

I have a 2ish year old ROR named Gwen. She is the recent surviver of a fox attack. I thought the fox had got her and taken her away but she showed back up two days later. When she came back she could stand but not well and would seem to fall a lot. I got her rehydrated, got her to eat a lot, and gave her 40 mg of asprin. After this she seemed to walk fine for 3 days and everything was okay.

All of a sudden when letting them out today it seems she is walking on a slant that leans to the left, it's almost as if her neck is slightly facing that way. It also appears her wing is hanging down a tiny bit. Every once in awhile while walking its almost as if she goes to sit and squats down, not fully, but in an unplanned way and gets back up rite after.

Does anyone have any input on this? I gave her another 40mg of aspirin today just to see if maybe that held her over for the 2 or 3 days and she just needed a redose.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How long has it been since she was attacked?

She may have suffered some spinal or nerve damage.
Have you checked her really well just to make sure there's no signs of bruising, a wound that may be getting infected, etc.?

 

[OhDangBro]

How long has it been since she was attacked?

She may have suffered some spinal or nerve damage.
Have you checked her really well just to make sure there's no signs of bruising, a wound that may be getting infected, etc.?

It has been about a week and a half at this point. I’m unable to really give her a good check as she is my most skidding chicken, she originally came from another flock (she was the lone survivor of a fox attack there) and went onto another flock that didn’t accept her and bullied her terribly. Now she is permanently part of my flock and has been accepted but due to the previous circumstances doesn’t let anyone get near her. She seemed to be doing better today. She also has a tendency to chase the baby chickens because she’s somewhat of a bully and I’m wondering if she just somehow ended up getting banged up while doing this.
Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated though. I’ll keep everyone updated.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If she roosts where you can reach her at night, that would be a good way of getting a hold of her.

If she's well enough to get around, eat/drink on her own and keep juveniles in line, then she's probably doing ok. Some chickens are resilient.

 

[OhDangBro]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to give an update. Gwen is walking fine and seems to be fully healed with no leaning or hanging wing. All I did was give her a 1/2 a baby aspirin twice a week and she seems to be fully back to normal!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Glad to hear she's doing well! Thank you for the update