Hey guys.. me again. Have a limping lady

[PonderingKiwi]

Hello! Firstly, I’ll tell you guys that my lady who lost the back of her neck is doing wonderfully. We put her outside on days it’s not freezing and she’s all but totally healed. The whole ordeal also made her our nicest chicken so she hangs out with us and invites herself inside are ISA Browns a skinny breed? Cuz she feel super thin even tho she eats a ton. Upon inspection, all the browns I have are pretty thin. While our jersey giants/EEs are fuller and our rooster is a fatty.. so I don’t think it’s worms.

Anyway! Yesterday we went out to feed everyone and noticed one of our Jersey giant ladies had a pretty heavy limp. We brought her inside and washed her feet carefully.. I then checked for bumble foot/cuts/breaks.. and saw/felt nothing abnormal. I remember reading that it’s best to restrict limping ladies so they can’t move around too much. So we broke out the chicken hospital again and put her in there over night. I know there’s some disagreement about treating animal pain.. but I side on helping relieve the pain. Plus the crate is so small all she can really do is stand up and turn around to eat and drink. So I gave her a baby aspirin. She seemed pretty exhausted anyway and after I carefully plopped her in there, she didn’t stand up again till the morning. I let her out in the morning and was hoping it’d be a little better.. but it’s not. I noticed that it seems like it’s her hip that’s hurt. Not her foot. She’s also curving her step? Idk how to describe that. Like normally they step straight forward one leg at a time.. but she’s bringing her leg forward in a roundabout way.. out a bit and then forward. I hope that makes sense. I know there’s not much that can be done.. but if there’s more I can do or if anyone knows what I’m talking about, I’d appreciate anything yall have to offer! Her name is Gladys. Oh and we named the brown Edna.. now that we can tell her from her sisters

Edit: oh and I can’t tell if she’s drinking water yet, I haven’t seen her drink. She doesn’t seem to be eating much, but I put some of those dried mealworm things in there and she did eat those. And she didn’t lay today.

 

[azygous]

It would help if you could make a video of her walking, both from the side and front so we can see her gait. I, for one, am able to tell if it's a foot that hurts or farther up the leg. I also have some experience with limping chickens with leg nerve damage, and that presents in a unique way.

But it's really not possible to tell what's wrong by just your description.

How high is the perch where Gladys normally roosts? What and how deep is the bedding under the roosts?

Does she have any faint greenish bruising on her legs or between her toes that you can see? Bruising on legs from having trouble accessing a too high perch will usually appear on the front of the shank.

Gladys can safely have two baby aspirin per day. This is a safe and effective pain reliever for chickens unless bleeding is involved.

 

[PonderingKiwi]

It would help if you could make a video of her walking, both from the side and front so we can see her gait. I, for one, am able to tell if it's a foot that hurts or farther up the leg. I also have some experience with limping chickens with leg nerve damage, and that presents in a unique way.

But it's really not possible to tell what's wrong by just your description.

How high is the perch where Gladys normally roosts? What and how deep is the bedding under the roosts?

Does she have any faint greenish bruising on her legs or between her toes that you can see? Bruising on legs from having trouble accessing a too high perch will usually appear on the front of the shank.

Gladys can safely have two baby aspirin per day. This is a safe and effective pain reliever for chickens unless bleeding is involved.

I did my best to get a video she’s not limping super hard right now, but I assume that’s because of the pain meds. I hope these are good enough I can try again in the morning if/when she’s back to limping hard.

Her legs are black so I can’t really see any different coloration, unfortunately. As far as where she perches.. I’m not sure. Some of them sleep on the floor. Some sleep on sawhorses. Some on a shelf that’s maybe 6’ up? And according to my husband he’s seen a few in the rafters! So she very easily could have jumped and hurt herself. We tried to stop them from getting up there.. but alas.. they keep doing it somehow. Also the bedding isn’t as thick as I want it. A couple inches rn. We’re going to add more tomorrow. Unfortunately, we had a little mite debacle and decided to purge the coop in favor of hopefully nipping it in the bud before it got out of hand.

Anyway, here’s the videos feat. a pug (I couldnt figure out how to upload it here so I made a youtube link, I hope thats ok)

 

[azygous]

That's a good video. Am I noticing her favoring the same leg you are? The left one? It looks like a light sprain may be what's going on.

No need to isolate her, but do place her in a restricted area so she is resting more than she is running around. Continue the aspirin for a few more days. If it continues to improves, then we will know we're right that it's nothing more serious than a sprain.

Do try to get more bedding where they are roosting, though. This could keep happening to more chickens and next time it might be a fracture. Heavy breeds are very prone to this issue. You won't stop the chickens who can fly up from roosting on the rafters, but do provide perches that are much closer to the ground so the heavy ones have a selection of safer roosting places. As they get older, my heavy girls were happy with portable perches I made out of thick pine branches that were just ten inches high. You might consider making a "social grouping" of such perches in the roosting area.

 

[PonderingKiwi]

That's a good video. Am I noticing her favoring the same leg you are? The left one? It looks like a light sprain may be what's going on.

No need to isolate her, but do place her in a restricted area so she is resting more than she is running around. Continue the aspirin for a few more days. If it continues to improves, then we will know we're right that it's nothing more serious than a sprain.

Do try to get more bedding where they are roosting, though. This could keep happening to more chickens and next time it might be a fracture. Heavy breeds are very prone to this issue. You won't stop the chickens who can fly up from roosting on the rafters, but do provide perches that are much closer to the ground so the heavy ones have a selection of safer roosting places. As they get older, my heavy girls were happy with portable perches I made out of thick pine branches that were just ten inches high. You might consider making a "social grouping" of such perches in the roosting area.

Thank you. Yes. It’s her left one. She’s limping harder this morning. Unfortunately, we don’t really have a second area for her this time of year so she’s got to sit inside for now.

Thank you though it’s always something with these ladies what a learning curve