- Feb 15, 2012
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I found our 2-year-old Delaware hen resting on the coop floor below the nesting boxes yesterday. Initially I thought she was just resting in a shady spot to escape the heat, but we noticed her struggle to get up and then she hobbled out on one leg and "crashed" in the run. She would not put any weight on the right leg, though I could not determine a specific break by feeling around.
We recently built a new coop (just integrated our 4-month-old birds with the 2-year-olds) and put linoleum underneath the shavings on the coop floor. I noticed her egg was in a nesting box so I'm thinking she slipped and hurt her leg after laying? My husband pulled all the linoleum last night. The nesting boxes are 2-3 feet up from the floor.
We have put her in a box with food/water/shavings in the house so we can keep an eye on her. The WEIRD part is that after a few hours of no weight on the right leg, she has started to put all weight on the right leg and now will not put weight on the left. I'm puzzled!
She is eating and drinking. Our goal is to hopefully rehabilitate her ourselves. I do have a neighbor who works for Foster Farms and can dispatch her quickly and painlessly if need be, but we just lost a girl to a predator last week, and we are sad to lose another.
Any ideas? Thanks so much for your help!
We recently built a new coop (just integrated our 4-month-old birds with the 2-year-olds) and put linoleum underneath the shavings on the coop floor. I noticed her egg was in a nesting box so I'm thinking she slipped and hurt her leg after laying? My husband pulled all the linoleum last night. The nesting boxes are 2-3 feet up from the floor.
We have put her in a box with food/water/shavings in the house so we can keep an eye on her. The WEIRD part is that after a few hours of no weight on the right leg, she has started to put all weight on the right leg and now will not put weight on the left. I'm puzzled!
She is eating and drinking. Our goal is to hopefully rehabilitate her ourselves. I do have a neighbor who works for Foster Farms and can dispatch her quickly and painlessly if need be, but we just lost a girl to a predator last week, and we are sad to lose another.
Any ideas? Thanks so much for your help!
