Lame Hen

[Rooster Jeff]

Good Afternoon,

I have an approximately seven month barred rock hen who has a lame left leg.

Looking at the leg, it shows no obvious signs of a break or dislocation. The best way to describe it is that she can stand without issue. However, when she tries to move, there is obvious pain when all of her weight is on the left leg. The leg can take the weight, but she limps and does not go too far as it appears that the pain is debilitating.

My unprofessional opinion would be a sprain, but wanted to see what others might thing about my girl.

If you agree that this is a sprain, what is the best way to treat this??

Thanks

Rooster Jeff

 

[dirtsaver]

Isolate her from the rest of the flock,like in a small crate or box,and keep her as quiet as possible to give the limb time to heal.It takes time. We had a similar situation with one of our brahmas,(she was 10 weeks at the time),and she lived in a cheese box in the house for about 3 weeks,(after 2 or 3 days she got brief visits with the others so there would be no re-introduction problems),and today is once more part of the "herd" although still slightly off in her stride. We also gave her about a quarter of a baby aspirin every twelve hours crushed up on her favorite snack to help with the inflammation.The dosage on that aspirin was a rough guess on our part.These injuries seem slow to heal,so patience is a real virtue,but in our case it paid off . Hope this helps.