Hen limping suddenly, sprain or worse?

[Chickflick29]

I’m very much a worry wart, so I’m hoping y’all can help me validate my anxiety or convince me to not panic lol.

My hen, Judy, was fine this morning coming out of the coop but started limping sometime this morning. My husband confirmed she seemed like she was walking fine around 7-8am today, but by 11am when she wandered to the porch for treats I noticed she was heavily limping. Still weight bearing, and still active/eating and drinking normally, just slowed down a bit by her gait. I didn’t feel anything terribly wrong when I picked her up and felt around, but I’m not very good at chicken anatomy either. The one concerning thing I did notice is that her injured leg/foot (?) does seem to turn in more than her healthy sister’s when she’s standing still (I’ve attached a picture for evidence of her leg/foot ‘turning in’).

Could it just be that she slipped on the porch tile getting out of her sister’s way and sprained something? Do you think it could be anything else?

We’ve given her anti-inflammatory meds orally (obtained from her avian vet for a previous ailment), and plan to keep her in tonight to prevent jumping to/from the roost, etc.

 

[Eggcessive]

How old is Judy? When you look at her legs side by side does the right leg appear bowed outward? There is a leg bone deformity called varus deformity that can affect one or both legs, and caused a bow legged appearance with the foot turned in. That might be the problem if she is young, but she also could have suffered a sprain or tendon injury. Here is some reading and good pictures of varus:
https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/leg-health-in-large-broilers

https://poultrydvm.com/condition/valgus-varus-deformity

 

[Chickflick29]

How old is Judy? When you look at her legs side by side does the right leg appear bowed outward? There is a leg bone deformity called varus deformity that can affect one or both legs, and caused a bow legged appearance with the foot turned in. That might be the problem if she is young, but she also could have suffered a sprain or tendon injury. Here is some reading and good pictures of varus:
https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/leg-health-in-large-broilers

https://poultrydvm.com/condition/valgus-varus-deformity

I should’ve included that - Judy is about 4 years old, she’s our retired gal

Very interesting to hear about the varus deformity, I’ll need to read up on it further. She doesn’t look bent/bowed necessarily, but I did notice that her hock on the favored side seems further out from her body than the ‘good’ leg. It reads as though this usually occurs in young chicks, is it something that would suddenly occur with a mature hen like Judy?

 

[Eggcessive]

Since she is an older hen, it probably is a tendon injury or sprain. I would force her to rest the leg and do no jumping up and down or running. The hen in the picture on the left below has varus deformity in both legs with feet turned in.