hello all, i am new and...

[dalovesroosters]

the kind folks in the" new to site" link suggested I come here with my question. My nephew has started raising chickens, and his wife came to me with a question which I have no answer, but feel its urgent. They have 3 or 4 hens who stopped walking and legs are turning blue, I googled this, but not getting any clear answers, I so hope there will be something we can learn here that may help her ladies. Thank you in advance and please have a Blessed day ya!

 

[Sarevan]

Welcome to BYC!

Blue legs?! That sounds horrible. How old are the girls, breed, and if possible pictures of them and the legs to help see the problem. Will be very helpful. The type of feed, are they free range? Are they still drinking eating on their own? If not do a search on the thread "go team tube feeding", they need to stay hydrated too.

I would give them a good going over to check them out under the feathers above the legs. Check pulse, see if blood return to legs by slightly pinching the leg and releasing to check for capillary blood return to area. Check the area they were in to see what they may have eaten, somethings thrown into a compost pile when decaying can make animals sick. Would smell bad rotten. Wild mushrooms are poisonous. Water that has been sitting and has some type of contaminate (fertilizer, bug spray) in it or poisoning from lead leaching into water. Plants, flowers in the area have they been nibbling on them? Some landscaping plants are poisonous also some weeds.

A friend has a Father who is an avid fisherman, he had redone his reel and left some fishing line in the area where her chickens were allowed to forage during the day. Some of her hens got small pieces of the line tangled around the leg just above scales and under feathers. The legs turned blue, and the line cut into the skin from tightening down. Other girls actually ate the line developed sour crop, impacted crop, and plugged digestive tracts. Two of those died as unable to clear the line from digestive tract. Surgery on crop of 2 others cleared out line and they are fine now. The hens with the line wrapped around legs also survived when imbedded line was cut out . The lengths of line left on the ground were less than a foot long. Area was raked to find all the remaining line. All of this happened within hours, was pretty severe in 24hrs. I am not saying this may be the cause, but chickens are pretty good about eating anything that looks appealing to them.

 

[dalovesroosters]

Thank you for the warm welcome and the information, i will call them soon and ask them these questions and find out if they will send me the pictures. i do want to ask, I have 3 babies about 4 weeks old, and my little **buffy**,( her mama is a buff lol ) had blue knees (what I call knees anyways, where the feathers stop on leg, right at that spot, it is looking blue, dark blue, and the day before her crop looked bruised,then yesterday the crop was normal color and late evening the blue spots seem to have moved down a tad bit. I do let her and the other 2 have run of yard, since they fit thru fence lol. i feed em grower with a little 3 way scratch. Since becoming a member, I have discovered I am starving my chickens to death. I went out yesterday and caught the few who will let me catch em and that keel is so darn pointy and I am very a shame. I suggest to anyone who wants to get into raising chickens, to do tons of research before ever bringing the first one home. I had no idea at all the things I should have been doing for my ladies and guys. well, we live pay check to pay check and on friday I am headed to my local co op and going to get started doing this right. I am surprised I have only lost 4 to death over the last 6 years. Wow, i have to say, sorry for long post, I just realized I could talk/write all day about my babies, anyone else? I am going to go read some post and see if I can find more chicken info, i should have known before leting so many be hatched here. Please have a Blessed Day and tell those chickens I said hi!! ( i believe they hear and respond to us)

 

[dalovesroosters]

here is Ms. buffy, i hope ya can see the blue coloring on the left leg. if its still there today I will take a much better picture.