Hen limping

[Eevee]

So I have a silkie hen Elsa, that's about 1.5years old. I noticed last weekend that she has a slight limp. I checked the bottom of her feet and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I thought maybe she jumped off of something and landed wrong. Well her limp is slightly worst although she still gets around fine. She is eating, drinking. No diarrhea or anything else. I know her nails are a bit long so I was trimming them and noticed this on her foot. I am guessing maybe broken feather? Could this be causing her limping? I added various pictures of her foot.

 

[Isaac 0]

Sorry to hear Elsa's having problems.

Could you post a few more pictures of that "broken feather"?

It looks like it might be a broken pin feather, but its hard to tell from the photo shown. At least from the picture, it doesn't look too recent and I'd be surprised if it's the sole cause of her limp.

Could you post a video of her walking so we can an idea how bad her limp is? To post a video, you'll need to upload it a video platform like Youtube or Vimeo, then copy/paste the link here.

Besides the limp, is she exhibiting any symptoms, such as lethargy, not wanting to eat drink, etc? What is she being fed?

Odds are, she jumped off the perch and sprained her leg a little bit. The best thing for her at this point is rest, but there are something you can do, to alleviate some of her pain, and speed the process of healing. That might include soaking the leg, in epsom salts water for 15/20 minutes every few days, she may also benefit if you add one 325mg aspirin tablet in 250ml of her drinking water.

Very important you keep her nails trimmed, as once they become overgrown it can seriously affect their walking abilities, and can cause problems that you're seeing here.

In addition to that, you'll want to address what may have caused her limp, are you're perches to high in the coop, is the bedding to hard, etc? If you post some pictures of you're setup we may be able to detect any environmental issues that may predispose her to develop limp.

 

[Eevee]

Thank you for the reply

Elsa is on layer feed with free choice grit and oyster shells. She is still eating and drinking fine but taking breaks,laying down more often. We use pine shavings in coop and run. Our roosts are relatively low in the coop. We have a couple higher roosts in the run but our silkies don't use those. Thankyou for the advise on nail trimming and foot soaks. I usually do the nails once a month but it looks like hers could be done more often. I added a close picture of the possible broken feather and pictures of the coop and run. Let me know if you see anything that may have caused the issue. I will get a video of her and post it shortly.

 

[Eevee]

First time doing a video on here so I hope it works. Its first thing in the morning here. I noticed her limp gets worse as the day goes on. Hopefully you can see at least a little bit.

 

[Jeanw]

So cute! A hen of mine was limping on 2 separate occasions. One was from a high jump bad landing and the other were some trimmed feathers poking her behind when she walked. She would take frequent breaks and lay down too. Thankfully both issues resolved themselves. Just wanted to share with you, it could be the feather poking her somewhere or maybe the long nails. That would be good, at least you’d know it wasn’t anything too serious.

 

[Eevee]

So cute! A hen of mine was limping on 2 separate occasions. One was from a high jump bad landing and the other were some trimmed feathers poking her behind when she walked. She would take frequent breaks and lay down too. Thankfully both issues resolved themselves. Just wanted to share with you, it could be the feather poking her somewhere or maybe the long nails. That would be good, at least you’d know it wasn’t anything too serious.

I am hoping it's nothing serious. I will take a look and see if I can see other feathers that may be poking her. If she injured herself from jumping off of something, how long does something like that take to heal?

 

[Jeanw]

Hiya, if I remember right, she limped for about a week and a half.

 

[Jeanw]

You might try to limit her travel and stress on the leg by keeping her in the run where she can’t go very far. I know it keeps her from her friends but it might help.