Hen won't use leg toes curled on foot

[PortmanChicks]

I have a one year old polish hen, yesterday we noticed she wasn't moving much and when we went by she went to get up but wouldn't use one of her legs really. She was kind of trying to stand on her "knucles" but not really putting weight on it. She had bumblefoot as a chick so we looked at her feet, all looked good. Then we felt up and down both the "injured" leg and foot and the one that seems fine..everything seemed to be the same. We brought her in the house and put her in a big crate with lots of woodchips, food and water and a heat lamp over one side to help her. She drank a good amount of water but didn't seem too interested in food. We gave her scrambled eggs which she gobbled up..She seemed perkier today but no change in the leg and foot..we're really worried about her and not sure what to do..there are no aviary vets in this area so we're really looking for some at home diy advice here.

Thanks so much in advance for all your help.

 

[Judy]

There are any number of things it could be, some sort of joint condition, an injured tendon or ligament, a degenerating or infected joint, a pulled muscle, etc. I would probably cross my fingers that it is something that will respond to rest, and just keep her confined and relatively inactive for a few days.

 

[Eggcessive]

Hopefully it is not something like Mareks disease. Riboflavin deficiency is a cause of curling toes, so I would at least start her on some vitamins as a precaution. There are chick vitamins for the water or you can give 2 drops daily of PolyVisol without iron baby vitamins.