Chicken with a limp, hopping on one leg

[Hahnchen]

We noticed our chicken Pecky developed a limp this morning. She is quite the adventurous type (being a Rhode Island Red) and hops up and down our chain link fence and off rocks so we are worried about a strain/sprain. We checked her leg just to look for any scabs/cuts/slivers, etc and haven't found any and checked for general movement of the leg. She doesn't make a lot of noise in protest. She is eating like normal, and is her usual active self, but hopping on one leg to get around. Any thoughts on what might be going on? And what to look for in terms of worrisome symptoms? Also, any recommendations on how to help her? We've tried just keeping her confined to the coop/run for part of the day, because she doesn't want to stop moving around and doing her usual things. Worried about our little bugger

 

[Judy]

Rest and wait and see is about all you can do if you can't see anything. You could try a darkened place to see if she will sleep more.

 

[Breac]

Try isolating her for a few days in a place where she can't jump around and do further damage and keep an eye on her for now. If it's just a sprain, she'll get better in a few days. If she doesn't get better after a week or so, it's probably a good idea to get her to a vet. When birds break their bones, they have a tendency to heal quickly, but not always correctly. A vet could tell you if it is broken and possibly prevent the break from healing incorrectly.


If it's not a break, it could also be something called joint sepsis. This seems a little less likely, but I'll mention it anyways because I had to deal with it a while ago. The symptoms are basically that the chicken limps around, not using one leg and doesn't like the leg joint to be touched/handled. It happens when a chicken damages his/her joint, often by getting it caught in something and then freeing the leg by jerking away quickly. In doing so, the joint is damaged. There's a 'pocket' between joints that's usually filled with fluid, but this gets damaged and starts getting infected. Joint sepsis occurs after the initial injury, when the infection has damaged the surrounding area. You might only notice it now because she can no longer hide her symptoms or she did something to damage her already weakened joint, like jumping down from a roost.