Healthy hen with a lame leg

[dufusanddingus]

About four days ago I started noticing our adult cochin hen was not walking around very much during the day. I picked her up from the spot she had been hanging out in and set her next to the food and water. She started eating and drinking like crazy as though she had not been able to make it over to the bowls all day. After that I set her down and watched her attempt to walk when I realized that she is tripping over her left foot, and falling on her face. When I examined her legs, I saw that her left leg was kind of just hanging there. No bumblefoot, no injury. and she did not react in pain when I touched it. I thought maybe she sat on it too long and it fell asleep, so I massaged it a bit, but no luck. She continues to move around only occasionally during the day, and continues to trip. I trimmed her nails but that did nothing. The color in her skin is good, her eyes and beak look clean and healthy, she does not fight with the other hens, no sickness or parasites with the others going on right now, and she is enclosed and protected from predators. She is actually the only one laying eggs right now as well, and she eats and drinks as well as the others. Seems healthy overall but her mobility is badly limited by this. I can feel warmth and some muscle movement in the leg when I examine it, but when she tries to walk it just gives out. Any thoughts?

 

[Lady Badlands]

Sounds like she may have broken her leg. That happened to one of my New Hampshire Reds last summer. She tried to fly up to her roost, got her foot caught somehow (I don't know) and landed on the ground with a broken leg. If it were a human leg, it would be broken right at the knee joint.

Other than that, she was fine. So I used VetWrap and set her leg so that the two joints were snug together. She adjusted the wrap when she went back up to the roost the next day and squatted down. This bent the leg out somewhat at the joint, but she was comfortable like that. Because of the position she was in every night on the roost, her leg healed incorrectly and now she walks with a limp.

But she walks, gets around very well, and is very healthy.

Since yours seems healthy in every other way, perhaps you might consider a break, especially because you said it's just hanging there.

 

[dufusanddingus]

Did yours make any noises or try to get away from you when you touched the broken leg? I thought it looked like it could be broken, but I was very surprised that when I touched it she did not react at all.

 

[Lady Badlands]

No, she had no problem with me manipulating it. There didn't seem to be any pain for her. Of course, she wanted to escape during the process of wrapping the leg, but I just rolled her in a big towel to keep her still while I set the break. It's important to get those joints affixed together as quickly as you can so healing can begin.

 

[dufusanddingus]

I will stop and get some vetwrap on the way home and fix her up as soon as I get to her. Thanks for your help!