Guinea keet with unknown type of leg/foot injury

[JustSumGurl]

This is my first post and I hope I'm doing this right and I apolagize if I'm not.
While moving my 16 new Guinea keets outside one of them wound up with an injury either from me or during their scramble to avoid me. I didn't notice it immediately although it's clear at this point his leg or foot is injured as he's no longer walking on it at all. I'm not sure what to do because I'm not even sure what exactly is wrong. I'd like to have an idea of what to look for prior to catching him so I can get right to helping him rather than possibly causing more problems. From what I can see there doesn't appear to be any outer wound or injury of any sort. As I said I didn't even notice it at first but within a day he seemed to be slightly limping and it's clearly gotten worse. It's only been a few days and today is the first he's completely avoiding standing on that leg. Yesterday he was still kinda tough to pick out of the bunch so I had reason to think it may heal on it's own.
So basically if anyone could possibly give some insight as to what to look for as well as what to do I'd greatly appreciate it.
He is in an enclosed coop and run area but they will eventually be allowed to free range during the day so I feel like it's vital he's able to heal properly or his chance of survival is basically slim to none.
Thanks in advance for any insight anyone may be able to give.

 

[WingsysRoost]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

It might be a strain or sprain if you can't see any visible injury, or something smaller that's hard to see at a distance. I usually look for any visible injury (cuts, scrapes, a broken nail), any heat, redness, or swelling (if in any doubt, I'll compare to some of the other birds who are not injured and to the uninjured leg to make sure), and any bruising as a first step.

Is he trying to move around at all while avoiding use of the leg, or is he staying in one place?

 

[JustSumGurl]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

It might be a strain or sprain if you can't see any visible injury, or something smaller that's hard to see at a distance. I usually look for any visible injury (cuts, scrapes, a broken nail), any heat, redness, or swelling (if in any doubt, I'll compare to some of the other birds who are not injured and to the uninjured leg to make sure), and any bruising as a first step.

Is he trying to move around at all while avoiding use of the leg, or is he staying in one place?

Thank you for the input. I thought I replied but I must not have hit enter. Anyway, I was able to catch him and bring him inside where I looked him over good and came to the conclusion that it most likely was a strain or sprain because everything looked fine. I did attempt to stabilize his leg a bit using a finger splint that I modified and wrapping it to secure it in place. I'm currently by myself here in the middle of nowhere and therefore had to attempt to hold him and wrap the leg myself. As you may have guessed I was unsuccessful mainly because I didn't want to cause more harm than the good I may or may not have done by wrapping it. I would have liked to keep him inside with the leg stabilized but I ultimately made the decision to put him back out with the others for several reasons and keep an eye on him that way. Overall I felt like keeping him inside and seperate from the others could actually lead to him becoming the odd one out and that's what I would have been hoping to keep from happening.
Anyway, hes been out with the others and he's doing well. He does use both legs but occasionally seems to favor the one. I've started leaving them out to free range in the daytime and he keeps right up with the others so I believe he'll be fine.