Hen with swollen legs after death of another in flock

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It’s good that you have the professionals working on an answer. The needle aspiration could have gotten a few cells to look at under a microscope for a gram stain or to get a PCR test. I have never had to deal with it before.

Most things that cause swelling in the legs are bacterial infection (including MS,) articular gout, and marble leg syndrome, a type of avian leukosis. All 3 look different. Gout causes swelling of both the feet and legs. Marble leg causes a thick hardened leg with normal looking feet. Synovitis including MS causes the ankles to appear swoolen and firm. Below and on the next post are pictures of each one.

upload_2019-1-19_13-56-49.jpeg

Marble leg disease (leukosis)
 
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Where did the speckled sussex come from? Is it possible they could have picked up the infection from a previous home or breeder, and it is just now showing up? Most of mycoplasma infections (as well as other infectious diseases) come from a carrier bird, and the chicken can have the disease in a latent form. When stress occurs, say during a molt or cold winter weather, some may start showing symptoms.
 
TwoCrows said:
Did the other bird that died have swollen legs too? MS does kill if not addressed.

There is a virus that can cause severe arthritis that looks like this too.

Definitely see if your vet can run some tests, blood work and such and maybe he/she can help you figure this out.

Keep us posted! :)
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The one that died, Lizzie, had growths on her feet, but not swollen legs.
 
I am not a vet nor do I have experience with any of those diagnoses, but just wanted to show the differences. As @dawg53 previously posted, there also is a synovitis caused by virus as well as bacteria. Very few of us ever get lab work in our chickens, unless we send a body to the state vet for a necropsy,but we learn a lot here from others posting about their animals.
 

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