lame chicken

[chickadim]

Ok....I have a chicken that was perfectly fine 2 days ago. Now she appears to have a lame/crippled foot. Her toes are curled and she will not stand on it. It does not appear to hurt her. She does not have an obvious injury. Besides her foot she appears healthy. When she tries to stand she falls. Any guesses to her problem?? Thanks.

 

[DraigAthar]

I'm not sure what the curled toes mean, but I had a hen do something similar to this once. She was running around fine one day and the next day she wouldn't stand up. If forced to move, she would limp terribly away, favoring one foot. I checked her foot and leg and could find no wounds or obvious broken bones. She acted lame for about two weeks and gradually started walking better and went back to normal. I think in the end she must have sprained or bruised something in her leg or foot, maybe when she jumped down from the roost pole one day, because it got better in time. We just made sure she was getting access to the food and water and let her sit quietly when she wanted to, and she got better on her own.

 

[chickadim]

Thanks for your response, but today her neck seemed to be paralyzed to....or something like that. Her neck was twisted and she was unable to her straighten it up. We had to put her down tonight.....sad day.

 

[DraigAthar]

I'm very sorry to hear that, you must be sad.