Light Brahma--hurt in leg joint

[Farm_gurl]

I have a 7 month old Light Brahma..she hurt her legs a few weeks back and she isnt getting better. I can bend it down but she wont put pressure on it so she hops around and sits....she eats, drinks and hops over to get up in my arms as soon as i enter the chicken coop. I was wondering if i should vet wrap it so it would not rub raw on the ground.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Miss Lydia]

....Is she rubbing the skin off? does she have open wounds? Do you know how she hurt herself? When you feel her legs can you feel anything different in hers than say one of your other chickens? She might heal faster if she was confined to a smaller area so she isn't using her legs so much and giving them a chance to heal.

 

[Farm_gurl]

I dont know how she hurt herself

But at the joint , it is bigger I think it feels like a callous now. She Usually sits at the door of the hen house to get the sun. I go in the coop and set her to the ground in the mornings then she eats and lays under house with the other hens till she gets cold then she Jump/flys to top of ramp (20" or so) and goes in house. On really cold days or rainy days she just stays in the house. I have no probalem bringing her in the house to help her heal......she would prefer being in my lap 24/7 if i let her, lol
She doesnt have any open wounds....After reading a few posts today I will check her foot too. I will try to take some pictures tonight of the joint.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Pictures would be good and checking the bottom of her feet also, I have Light Brahma hen and a buff also they are the sweetest birds.

 

[Farm_gurl]

Oh my gosh they are amazing....I just lost one last night. ( her name was Big Mama) I thought the kids would think I finally lost it if they saw me cry over her so I keep it together, but they both ran out to see who it was and even my sons bestfriend came out and was like "come here mom and let me hug you." So then I cryed, lol They are very special so I thought i would finally come on here for some help so i dont lose another one.

 

[Miss Lydia]

What happened to Big Mama, what symptoms did she have, and it's perfectly normal to cry when you lose them I sure have and many others on here also.

 

[Farm_gurl]

Big mama, had lost some weight .... We had a Roster and I got rid of him 2 weeks ago...he wasnt mean but with Alice and her leg I didnt want to risk him hurting her....but with Big Mama I could tell she was smaller than she was but she was eating when I would go out there, (about 2-3 times a day) last week I would see her standing in the pen by her self, it seemed odd the way she looked but if i went out she would come over so I thought she was just cold soaking up the sun. or depressed that the rooster was gone....we had just got over 8 days of rain but it is still sooo brisk out side. she did have diarrhea last week, yellowish, i almost thought she was egg bound. I checked her and didnt feel anything on her bottom.
I didnt remember her having the diarrhea until today when I started really thinking about everything.


ok our local feed store has a lady I talked to today also, she said check the others see if they have meat in breast area, not boney......Alice (the one with hurt leg) has the least the other 2 ladies feel nice and thick, but one does have loose poop.....it has a poop and then it was runny green/brown on top.

sorry I know these topics are scattered, just trying to put down everything i can think of.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Okay heres the poop chart: http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0 as far as weight loss have you ever wormed your chickens? they can take the cold really good but drafts is not good. You might want to try them on some yogurt, lean protein like low salt cat food, tuna fish, just to try to get some weight on them.or her. But worms will take them down also, are they all 7 months old? what part of the country are you in? also scrambled eggs might go over real well. I'll eventually get it right[link]

 

[Farm_gurl]

ok i will look at chart for sure.....and try yogurt and tuna right away.....I can shut their house at night there is a little door they go in that would stop any draft at night. I just left it open because the rooster was up before me and i dint want him to hurt the hens if i didnt get out there fast enough.

Yes they are all 7 months old. I looked at poop didnt see any worms, but i know they are internal too....also i look for mites and i didte see any, but just read to check a certain area so i will recheck.

We live in "unsunny" California........central coast......we had 2 rounds of rain about 6- 7 days each.....and we are having one of our coldest winters....we get to about 25-30 at night....sometimes it gets up to 53 in the day

I feel for all my babies out there this year

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

I had a Light Brahma die recently of rather mysterious causes. She stopped walking. We took her to the vet several times and all the detectable disease processes were ruled out through a foecal culture. The vet said that the bird had a hip injury but that never really made sense to us. She became increasingly listless over a period of a few weeks and then just expired.

It was very sad. She died on a Sunday so I couldn't take her in for a necropsy. My two other birds were fine, so it wasn't anything contagious.