Hen with more significant limp than usual

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Hi all!

My almost 3 year old ISA Brown hen has (another) limp, but this seems different than the others. I first noticed it 2 days ago. She hasn’t left the coop, and lays as close to the heater as she can get. She also holds the corresponding wing out sometimes while laying down.

A little background- I’m a mostly novice chicken keeper, and Buffy is from my original flock of 5 hens in 2019. She’s had several (5 or 6) instances of limping over the years. The first time it was bumblefoot. The other times we couldn't see a problem, so we took a monitor, wait, and see approach and she got better after a couple days.

I noticed her limping on Thursday night. Friday and today she spent most of her time laying down on the coop floor by the heater. My flock upgraded from a teeny coop to a luxurious walk-in shed/coop back in the spring. Some of the girls, including Buffy, don’t use the ramp to the roost, so my guess is she hurt herself jumping down. (I have deep pine shavings, but since the girls have been spending more time indoors, they’ve spread it around).

Anyway, I’m not seeing improvement yet, and her behavior (laying down and not leaving the coop) is unusual. Granted- this behavior could be new because the situation is fairly new- new coop, new to having heat in the coop, and colder than normal temps outside). She seems happy, and is eating and drinking when I take her food, water, & treats. She still feels well enough to harass the younger girls when they get near her, and does get up occasionally and start scratching around in the coop. She can walk, but is clearly uncomfortable. I feel as though I need to take next steps but I don’t know what those are.

Should I give her pain meds? (I haven’t yet because I worry that feeling better might cause her to do more harm to herself).

Should I bring her indoors? (I haven’t yet
because of the temperature difference. The heater keeps the coop just above freezing (usually). It’s been single-digits overnight & barely 30s during the day here in Maryland. My house is 68-70 degrees.

I’d prefer to treat her at home. A vet visit isn’t entirely out of the question, but I’d like to exhaust other options first.

I’ve included a pic of her foot. I noticed a bump on her toe. Could that be the culprit? I also included a couple pics of her laying by the heater, which is just outside the door to the coop.

Thanks for any insight or advice!

 

[azygous]

If it's an injury, you may see some faint green bruising on the leg. She can have one chewable 81 grain aspirin twice a day for pain.

How high are the roosting perches? Is this hen heavy? Heavy chickens should not roost on high perches. The risk of leg and feet injuries is high. It would be a good idea to make a low perch for her while she is healing, something not more than ten inches high.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

If it's an injury, you may see some faint green bruising on the leg. She can have one chewable 81 grain aspirin twice a day for pain.

How high are the roosting perches? Is this hen heavy? Heavy chickens should not roost on high perches. The risk of leg and feet injuries is high. It would be a good idea to make a low perch for her while she is healing, something not more than ten inches high.

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I don’t think Buffy would be considered a heavy hen. She’s the same size/weight as my other ISA Brown.

The roosts are about 3.5’ feet off the ground. There is a ramp, but none of my older girls really use it. We’re going to do some construction today to make the ramp bigger and less steep to see if that helps, and see if we can make a makeshift lower roost for her, but I’m not sure she’d use it. I think my “old” girls are just stuck in their ways and probably won’t use a ramp no matter what. When the older girls lived in their old coop, they roosted on top of the coop 5 feet off the ground. They had no trouble flying up there, but every night I would place them in the coop so they never had to jump down.

I’m going to give her some Aspirin today. She’s still in good spirits, and I’ve been going out in the morning and lifting her off the roost so she isn’t jumping, but she’s clearly uncomfortable. Hopefully the Aspirin will help.