Leg or foot issue

[alittletoofar]

Hello,

My Silver Laced Wyandotte, MJ, is having an issue with her left leg and I wanted to see if anyone else has had an experience like this and if there is anything else I should try or check into.

There is no visible injury, yet she can barely walk on it. She will hop a little, but puts very little weight and also seems to use her toes more than pad. She is 3 years old and I've had her since she was tiny. She was vaccinated against Marek's and Coccidia and lives with 3 other chickens who are all fine. She looks healthy otherwise. Her color is good. She is not laying. She is eating and drinking, but not her normal amount.

These are the things I've tried.

• Soaking in epsom salt bath with no results.
• Took her to the vet and they found no visible injury upon examination or x-ray. The vet saw no sign of bumblefoot. Said it could possible be some type of cancer or Marek's, although she did not present with the normal symptoms.
• She was on Meloxicam & Doxycycline for 14 days with no improvement.
• She has been in my bathroom for 3 weeks on restriction to see if there was a sprain or other nonvisible internal injury that needed time to heal.

Thank you for any advice or suggestions!

~Terryn & MJ

 

[Eggcessive]

A couple of pictures of her legs and a video uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo with a link posted here might be helpful. In the absence of swelling, green bruising, or redness, it may be hard to tell. Is she using her wings to get around?

 

[alittletoofar]

Uploaded some photos and trying this video link. I just took her back out to the run today.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bRy7J2NzPkscZGgA7

 

[Eggcessive]

It looks like there is bumblefoot evidenced by the dark spot on the left foot pad. That might be causing the problem, but it also could be sprained. If you could get a good close up pic of the foot pad that would be helpful.

 

[alittletoofar]

There was a dark spot that seemed more like dark skin rather than a scab. I picked it off to see if I could see a place where an infection could drain out. The dark spot flaked off fairly easily just by running my finger nail over it. She also didn't react at all. She seemed to enjoy her foot massage and didn't try to pull away. There is no smell at all.

 

[Eggcessive]

It looks like she is developing bumblefoot, but it looks too mild to cause the limping. You could try soaking her feet once a day in warm Epsom salts water to see if that helps her. That also can help with peeling off a bumblefoot scab. Let us know how the limp goes, or if there are other symptoms.

 

[BillieVerdin]

This is a mystery! Not bumblefoot, no bone injuries. It could be a muscle injury but then we would expect to see improvement over three weeks of rest and we didn’t. Presumably a joint infection would’ve been apparent to the vet and on the radiographs and even if they weren’t, the doxy would have helped. Now the meloxicam - that wouldn’t help her walk better but it would make her feel better.
I assume the radiographs included her feet?

 

[alittletoofar]

The x-rays included her feet. It's been another two weeks and she is still limping. Still no real sign of bumblefoot. She has been sleeping in a nesting box so each day I take her out of the coop and bring food and water to her. She does travel around a bit and always goes back in the coop at night on her own. The other chickens are not picking on her so I'll let her stay outside unit she improves or goes downhill.

I have had a battle with rats getting in their coop. Is there any disease she could have gotten from a rat? I'm grasping, but it just seems so odd. None of the others are showing any sign of illness. They free range and have access or organic layer pellet and scratch so the vet didn't think there could be any type of vitamin or mineral deficiency. I'm starting to think that it is probably cancer somewhere in her body.

 

[Dori Anderson]

how is she doing now? I have a chicken with the same issues- I do think it's a soft tissue problem because she reinjured herself trying to climb over some boxes.