Thanks for your concern. This actually took several days, but I kind of decided the hallux (thumbs) weren't broken, but more permanently disabled due to the problem with the ankles...I never found the hallux swollen, and since both legs are symmetric, I decided the odds of her breaking both hallux on the wire and me not noticing it made it improbable... As for the wire, my girls stand mostly on newspaper, cardboard and chopped grass. But yes, as is standard with this species - their housing is constructed of hardware cloth.
Today I noticed my sweet little pet has swollen ankles, looks like both hallux (thumbs) are broken also. I actually line most of the cage with newspaper and chopped grasses almost all of the time. Sad, but I feel the broken hallux are kind of inevitable for a species that lives on wire flooring most of the time - something I kind of expected could happen and hopefully not too painful... I have brought her indoors for observation. I believe she is not egg bound as all 4 of my hens I believe are laying. I can tell she is kind of in pain since she's missing feathers on her chest - something is making it hard to walk... What is going on and what do I need to do about it? Thanks in advance for suggestions/thoughts/sharing of knowledge. Sorry I didn't get a good pic of the thumbs... mostly concerned about the ankle swelling. The hallux aren't swollen, just bent and not really sure how long any of this has been happening. We were out of town recently and unfortunately, due to a miscommunication, their care went South during that time.
