Frostbite

[Eggcessive]

The green on the hock is bruising. Is the purple her actual color or is that BluKote or a spray? Could it be bleeding into the tissue? I have never seen frostbite in a ring around a leg before. Could she have gotten something caught around her leg? It doesn’t look like typical frostbite, but I wonder if the leg is broken?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The green on the hock is bruising. Is the purple her actual color or is that BluKote or a spray? Could it be bleeding into the tissue? I have never seen frostbite in a ring around a leg before. Could she have gotten something caught around her leg? It doesn’t look like typical frostbite, but I wonder if the leg is broken?

The purple is from the blukote spray. Im wondering if she got stuck and twisted or broke the knee

 

[Eggcessive]

That is what I also wonder. If there are any cuts or openings in the skin, she would need some good antibiotics from a vet, and splinting if it is broken. Here is a good link for splinting a broken leg:
https://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf

 

[Texaschickenfam]

I think it was internally injured by the cold from lack of blood flow for a long time.
It's not broken as far as I can tell. It happened the night of a freeze/snow, is why we really think it is damage from the cold. Night before she was fine, next morning not. We had to bring her in and nurse her to warmth, again why we associated her leg injury to the cold.
Note this is the first freeze we have ever dealt with, we are from a much hotter area, just moved here a couple months ago. So cold injuries are new to use. I have dealt with broken legs in the past... seem simular but the circumstances has me believing its cold damage
The fever in the leg is what makes me want to make sure and do something soon before it spreads and she gets very sick

 

[Brooks_]

For my own development, what's your locale? The temp, night in question?

 

[Nigel27]

I could see the cold contribute to the injury, like slipping on something icy maybe but not the actual source of injury, their legs are amazingly resilient. If none have frost injury to their combs(assuming you have some with single combs) then I don’t think it’s from the cold. The cold definitely brings out their dumb.
If she’s walking on it, it will probably heal just fine with a little tlc

 

[Texaschickenfam]

For my own development, what's your locale? The temp, night in question?

That night it hit a low of 18 and it was snowing. We are now in north east TX just moved from Southern AZ where she is from and use to much higher temperatures.

 

[Nigel27]

Some of my single comb roosters got frostbite a couple weeks ago from -17c but no leg injuries.

 

[Texaschickenfam]

I could see the cold contribute to the injury, like slipping on something icy maybe but not the actual source of injury, their legs are amazingly resilient. If none have frost injury to their combs(assuming you have some with single combs) then I don’t think it’s from the cold. The cold definitely brings out their dumb.
If she’s walking on it, it will probably heal just fine with a little tlc

She is not walking on she is just hopping around. There is a possibility it is broken and the cold was just a coincidence, there is the localized fever in the leg leads to all the questions of, how damaged is it, infection does spread and will cause her to get very sick if it does. Should I just wait and see what direction she goes?

 

[Eggcessive]

It is up to you. If you normally harvest some chickens for meat and feel comfortable doing that, I doubt that she has any infection that would affect the meat beyond the leg. If you don’t mind splinting her leg and taking some time to heal, it would be several weeks of splinting if her leg is broken. She might recover from that or have issues. Watch for splinting tape to get too tight. A vet could xray and splint, but that will cost a few hundred dollars if you have a vet to see her. The video below is showing a change of a splint in a similar area of the leg: