Help With Injury Identification

[12404914]

One of our old hens is having trouble walking today. Her left leg will stumble and collapse when she tries to walk. I checked her for bumblefoot, but her feet were fine. She used to have a problem with leg mites, but they were taken care of and she recovered. We found her today sitting in a pile of poop, as she wasn't trying to walk. I picked her up and started to notice that she couldn't walk without her aforementioned limp, and she is barley able to gain distance before giving up.
I have four theories:
1. She has broken her leg
2. She is suffering from some sort of nutritional deficiency.
3. She is somehow lame due to the leg mites (She doesn't show symptoms and she was affected about 4 months ago.)
4. She has some sort of sprain or twisted muscle/inflammation.
First, is there a cause I haven't thought of?
And second, how do I check for her injury? I don't know how to tell the difference between a broken leg bone or a joint problem. I hope there is some symptom that differentiates the causes.
Finally, how expensive would it be to have her checked? My family says treating her at the vet would be to expensive but I would and have done my own operations on chickens, like bumblefoot removal, so how much does it cost to just have a chicken looked at?
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Eggcessive]

How old is she? Have you added any new chickens to the flock over the past few weeks or months? Was she vaccinated for Mareks disease? Can you post any pictures of her standing, or a short video of her walking posted to YouTube or Vimeo with a link posted here? Does she jump up to roost and how high are they? Does she still lay eggs? Is she holding the leg up or putting it down? Sprains or injuries can be common.

 

[12404914]

How old is she? Have you added any new chickens to the flock over the past few weeks or months? Was she vaccinated for Mareks disease? Can you post any pictures of her standing, or a short video of her walking posted to YouTube or Vimeo with a link posted here? Does she jump up to roost and how high are they? Does she still lay eggs? Is she holding the leg up or putting it down? Sprains or injuries can be common.

She is at least three years old. The only person who remembers when exactly she was taken home is my dad and I'm not allowed to wake him up to ask. The oldest she could be is from 2017. She is with a group of young buff orpingtons that are less then a year old, but they are almost fully grown. They don't show any symptoms. I think the place we got our chicks from did vaccinations, but I don't know for sure. She hasn't been roosting (according to my sister who takes care of them). She hasn't layed eggs in a while. She doesn't hold the leg up and she isn't able to stand. We have her separated right now with food and water close to her head, so she can eat and drink. I haven't cleaned off her foot yet, because I don't want to accidentally hurt her leg worse.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

How does her leg and foot look compared to her other leg and foot?

 

[12404914]

Her other foot looks similar. I couldn't tell a difference. I do see a reddish spot looking at the photo now but I didn't see anything like that when I was examining her.

 

[Eggcessive]

I am not a vet, just an observer, but her left leg looks to be either extremely weak or almost paralyzed. Something could be broken or sprained badly, or she might be showing signs of Mareks. Hard to know for sure without testing. Xrays can cost $100-200 plus all of the other fees a vet would charge. Make sure that your hen is close to food and water. Keep her separated since the others may try to hurt her, but she might like company of a friend. A chicken sling might be something that might help keep her up, cleaner, and in front of food and water. Here are 4 pages of examples:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/versions-of-chick-chairs-please.1166308/

 

[12404914]

Thank you. I have put her in a chair sling and it seems that it has helped her leg strength a bit, as she is able to hold herself up for longer, but she still can't walk. She also isn't eating, do you guys have any suggestions to entice her to? I have tried using feed, oats, and even a piece of banana.

 

[Eggcessive]

I usually start with a little bowl of wet chicken feed, and add some scrambled egg and plain yogurt. I hold it up to the beak, and also sprinkle a few feed crumbles to get their attention.

 

[12404914]

She seems to be eating a little bit of the yogurt but won't have the wet chicken feed, even when I lightly press it to her beak with a spoon. How much should the water-to-feed ratio be? Also, any help with getting her to drink? If I press a small bit of water to her beak she will drink some but not a lot. After a while she stops drinking altogether. I'm afraid I won't be able to get her to drink enough each day.
Also, she is able to stand much better than before, but she still won't move around much and I haven't seen her try to walk.

 

[Meyer_Hatchery]

How is your hen doing this morning? I am concerned that this could be Mareks you're dealing with. I've had better success with getting water into sick chickens by using an eye dropper and dribbling it into the corner of their beak a drop or 2 at a time. Cooked, scrambled egg with the shell mashed up into it would be a good food source for a day or so to get something into her to begin a recovery. Also, adding a vitamin supplement to her water may help if it's a nutritional deficiency.