Chicken with Leg Injury?

[artallen84]

I'm a little new to chickens, I've only have my flock since Oct. 2012. I have 4 Sexlinks, 3 of which are 5 months old, the other is about 9 or 10 months old. Well, I just noticed yesterday that one the 5-mo-olds is walking with a bit of a limp. I inspected her leg and don't see anything unusual... scales all look normal, toes don't look broken or crooked, no open wounds on the foot or leg. Can chickens get a sprained ankle (or something similar)? Is this cause for concern, or will it heal itself?

Her behavior seems usual, eating habits haven't changed; she just acts like her leg hurts and avoids putting weight on it whenever possible.

 

[Chickenfan4life]

We had a similar ordeal with a Naked Neck rooster. He fell of one of the roosts and put too much weight on one leg. His leg turned blue (from bruising) and took a while to heal, but he was otherwise fine. There really isn't anything you can do that wont get the flock's attention and cause cannibalism.

If it does look bruised, then there really isn't any better remedy for it than time: just wait and she'll heal.

 

[artallen84]

We had a similar ordeal with a Naked Neck rooster. He fell of one of the roosts and put too much weight on one leg. His leg turned blue (from bruising) and took a while to heal, but he was otherwise fine. There really isn't anything you can do that wont get the flock's attention and cause cannibalism.

If it does look bruised, then there really isn't any better remedy for it than time: just wait and she'll heal.

Thank you for responding so quickly. That's what I was thinking, but because this is my first flock I didn't want to ignore a potentially serious problem.