Lame hen

[teniteni]

Hello all, this is my very first time posting! I only have two hens, originally I started out with 3 but a very persistant neighbourhood dog got into the coop and killed one of our girls, very sad!!
So now we only have 2 girls! One is white and our original name for her is "Whitey", and out other girl is brown and her name is, "Brownie"!!!
Right...., our problem is that Brownie is lame in her left leg. She seems to have thicker legs than her mate, 'Whitey's' legs are quite slim and trim but our other girl's legs seem to not be flaking and replacing with new growth, they look quite thicker and have a thick layer of 'scaley' something?
The problem being is that she doesn't walk normally, she's lame and limp's and slightly collapses when she has to put weight on that foot.
But in saying this, her weight is beautiful, her comb and feather's look healthy and she's still laying!!!!
i'M WORRIED, if anyone has a clue,,,, please contact!!!!!

Cheers,

Rose from New Zealand

 

[Mahonri]

First off. WELCOME TO BYC!

So glad you found us!

Sounds to me like she has two problems.

Scaly leg mites

and

Bumble foot.

Scaley leg mites you can treat by putting Vaseline or another good oil on her feet and legs every evening when they go to roost.

Bumble foot: Look on the bottom of the lame foot, is there something there that looks like a scab? If so, pull it off, squeeze the foot to get the pus out, WASH IT, put on an antibiotic ointment, THEN, a mixture of Iodine and sugar and wrap the foot with guaze and medical tape. Repeat this process every other day or so until you see improvement, then you can spread out the treatments until it looks like it's going to heal. It's easy my 14 year old did it on one of our white rocks.

 

[RhodeIslandRedFan]

Agree to check for scaly leg mites and also bumblefoot. Here are linkt to some further information on both conditions. Good luck to you!

scaly leg mites http://poultrykeeper.com/poultry-diseases-and-disorders.html

bumblefoot https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=222768&p=1