How to proceed? Bantam Cochin with hurt foot!

[looptloop]

I am embarrassed to say that I have been meaning to post this for some time. I got these 2 young bantam cochin pullets from a man who had to sell all of his chickens. I have been keeping them in with the guineas, no problem. One day a several weeks back I noticed one of the cochins was hobbling about in the pen. She has been too terrified of me to let me check her out. It's taken this whole time, and lots of treats, but I think she is to the point that I can catch her and look her over better. I believe she has hurt her leg, as she was fine the morning I noticed her hobbling.

One problem is that her legs are so feathered that I can't see anything. I was thinking I could fill the utility sink with a few inches of warm water and get her wet, will that help me to see anything? Can/should I cut the feathers off?

What is the best way to proceed?

 

[chickenlover205]

what ever you do DONT CUT THE FEATHERS OF. you can wet it so the feathers stick to her leg better but to me it sounds like whatever it is will have to do some healing on it self

 

[looptloop]

Alright, I decided to give her a bottom half bath to see if I could even tell what was going on. Much to my dismay, her right leg is turned out at the knee. It must have broken there, and has since healed to the side? I did cut several large clumps of poop off her rear end, bless her heart, she must not be high enough off the ground for the poop to not get stuck on her. I cleaned her up as best as I could and clipped as many low feathers off her so hopefully there won't be big poop clumps hanging off of her.

She didn't appear to be in pain, and let me touch and look at her leg. I didn't do any major manipulating to see if anything felt loose, but at least I got a decent look.

Is this something I can still fix? Should I take her to a chicken vet?