Injury or Neurological Issue?

[micstrachan]

Bridge is the alpha and will be eight at the end of February. She has never been sick nor injured that I can tell, except for when she tore off the back of her comb when she was young. She has been walking strangely for at least a week now, possibly two. I have not treated her with any vitamins, but did supply meat for vitamin B and sunflower seeds for selenium for a few days. I haven’t done anything about vitamin E. I gave her aspirin one day and CBD another, wondering if she is in some sort of pain. I’ve done nothing consistently, and so far nothing has seemed to help. I am perfectly willing to treat her properly, but could use some advice. Does this look more like an injury or neurological problem? Bridge is reluctant to jump off the roost, so I help her down most days. I thought it might be a vision issue, and if I am not there to let her down, she will get herself down.

 

[micstrachan]

I forgot to post some knowledgeable friends.

@Shadrach
@azygous
@Eggcessive
@Wyorp Rock

 

[Shadrach]

Injury I would say.
I assume you've checked to make sure nothing has dug into her foot.
How high is her perch?
At eight years old I would want a hop up perch. Nothing higher than 14 inches.
Getting her to use it may be another matter. I've had a few weighty elderly hens that would insist on leaping for the highest perch and not making the jump.

 

[azygous]

Foot pain issue. Leg seems to move well, but the foot seems tender.

Foot injuries are not always easy to determine since the smallest thing can cause pain. I've found the following on limping chickens:

-pine cone scale lodged under a toenail
-hang nail
-broken nail
-bruised toe (light green)
-bruised foot pad (scab)
-ingrown feather (not necessarily only on feather-footed, sometimes errant feathers show up on clean leg breeds as they age.)

 

[micstrachan]

Thank you. The coop is a bit of a Winchester mystery house, and the roosts are chest height when I’m standing inside the coop. However, they jump down about 18 to 24 inches to shelf, and then can either jump down from there or take a ramp. The younger ones jump all the way down off the roost. The older ones tend to take the ramp.

The floor of the second level of the coop is about the same height as the roosts in the main coop. The roosts in that area are each an 18 inch jump up and then up again. Depending on the weather, Bridge will choose to roost at the very highest roost, but she has several jumps to get up to it and down from it, or in the warmest spot in the lower coop, which is still chest height. Either way, I help her down most days. And good observation that she is a weighty hen. She has always been second heaviest to the Brahma.

 

[micstrachan]

Thank you. I will look at her foot more closely. There is no Bumblefoot issue, but I’ll look to see if I missed something else.

 

[micstrachan]

Also, there is one very low roost, but nobody uses it.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I lean toward injury too.

Her crop is emptying overnight? The only other time (besides injury) I have seen a hen "high step" on one side was when the crop was sour and starting to become pendulous, she was using her foot to push the crop up with each step.

Bridge looks good for an 8yr old.

 

[micstrachan]

I lean toward injury too.

Her crop is emptying overnight? The only other time (besides injury) I have seen a hen "high step" on one side was when the crop was sour and starting to become pendulous, she was using her foot to push the crop up with each step.

Bridge looks good for an 8yr old.

Thank you. Yes, her crop is emptying overnight. I’m going to visit my daughter at college this weekend, but will look closely at Bridge’s foot before I go.

Does anyone know if arthritis could cause this?

 

[azygous]

Arthritis, maybe. But I'm still leaning towards a minor injury. Study the running video. She displays full normal motion from hip to shank, then she pulls back before her foot makes contact with the ground. I bet she stubbed a toe getting up onto her perch. Yes, you read that right. I've seen more injuries from my chickens getting to their perch rather than coming down. Same principle - heavy body hampering perch access. She needs to be encouraged to use a low perch. Yeah, good luck.