Chicken with possible sprained leg joint

[taurusladee]

Any info or advice would be appreciated.

I have a 3 year old RIR and last Thursday I found her in the coop just sitting there not wanting to walk on one of her legs. At first I thought she was sick because I thought it felt like her abdomen was swollen so I brought her in, checked for possibility that she was egg bound, nothing....I put her in a smaller tote and made sure she had food and water (which I put antibiotics in just in case. She has been in the tote ever since she started drinking water and eating she seemed better. She is perky and alert but I noticed her one leg seemed to drag and she can stand on it but when she tries to walk it drags a bit. I felt up both her legs and it seems like the joint between her femur and fibula bone is swollen, I could feel no breaks in her leg at all.

I have read that it can take up to 3 weeks to heal and just to keep them isolated in a small area where they can't move around a lot. She does move around and again, she can stand on the leg but I noticed that her foot on that leg seems to turn out a little bit. When I found her in the coop she was right in front of the nesting boxes and my only thought is that she may have been jumping up to get in one and could have possibly injured the leg.

Has anyone ever had a chicken with a leg injury and if so, what did you do? how long did you give it? From everything I have read, I don't think I can split it, the area that it is in, I think it would do more harm than good. Any ideas???? Again, any info would be appreciated!

Thank you so much!

 

[SongnDance]

I have no idea, I wish I could help. I am curious to what you did to help her. My rhode island chicken is limping and hasnt been out of coop for two days. I am planning on cleaning her leg and wrapping it up. But I don't know if this is the best idea. Thanks

 

[Mellow1]

Yep, I've had hens with a sprained leg. Kept them isolated...10 days to 2 weeks seemed to be enough time to heal. Gave them regular food plus their favorite healthy treats along with grit and oyster shell in separate dishes. I also gave them Electrolytes in their water for a week. Since it was hard for them to roost, they slept in a small dog crate stuffed with shredded newspaper on the floor in an enclosed back porch. Hope your hens turned out fine

 

[Eggcessive]

Chickens can suffer sprains from jumping off high roosts, and from everyday activities. Without an xray, it is difficult to tell if there is a broken bone without obvious displacement of the bone. When a joint is swollen, as in the OP's case, it can be a sprain, a tendon issue, or even an infection such as mycoplasma synovitis (MS.) Vitamins with minerals given in the food or water may be helpful, but confining the chicken to a small space to force rest of the leg for a week or two is the best conservative treatment. Splinting can be done, but care needs to be taken to not splint too tightly. Here are some links to splinting for birds:
http://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf
http://www.lbah.com/word/fractured-bird-leg/

 

[Mellow1]

P.S. Since legs weren't broken i saw no need to wrap.....give them a small draft free area on the floor all to themselves. I also covered floor with a cloth painters tarp to help with poop clean up. Its heartbreaking to see your little hen go through pain, but they do miraculously heal!