Limping 5month old hen

[capow21]

I have a Rhode Island Red that is about 5 1/2 months old. Four days ago when I let them out of their run to free range she was limping on her left leg when she would run. Then yesterday she would only walk and hardly put any weight on it. Now today she put pretty much no weight on it and didn't do much walking, mostly gets to where she wants to be and lays down. She mostly would just lay or stand there today, so I've been packing her around some so she doesn't have to walk. She started laying eggs about a week ago. I got one from her yesterday. Then this evening I watched her lay a shell-less egg.

I checked her all out and there is nothing visibly wrong with her foot or leg. About an hour ago she wouldn't even stand up, almost acting like neither leg wanted to support her. I don't know if it's because she's been laying down pretty much all day, so the other leg is cramped/asleep. I don't know....She ate some grass and some of her feed and drank water. She took a nap on my lap.

Any thoughts? I know they can hurt themselves and take time to heal. I'm just worried since it has gotten worse over the past three days. Any pain meds I can give her that I don't have to inject or maybe antibiotics in case there's some kind of infection or something? I do not like to give animals shots.

 

[teach1rusl]

First, I would closely recheck her foot for possible bumblefoot. There's no swelling or scab looking thing??? I don't know how high your roosts are, but it's possible she injured her leg jumping down. I would crate her for a day or two - this will force her to limit movement, plus you'll be able to observe her for a better assessment. Just like when a person sprains a leg or something - they're supposed to stay off of it.

 

[capow21]

Okay, thank you for the response. I didn't see anything today, but I will wash her foot up tomorrow morning and look it over really well. Then I will rig up something to confine her in.

The first two days she was limping it seemed she was keeping off of just the base of her foot. She would rest her foot with her toes. Her toes are strong in both feet. I just picked her up from the ground of the coop and put her up inside and she grabbed onto my finger tight with her toes. When I sat her down she was aweful wabbly, hardly walked and layed back down.

I don't think my roosts are overly high. There are three. Two up in the coop and one down in the run. All three are under three feet high. I used 2-3 inches of sand in the top part, so it's not too hard when they jump off. The rooster might have tweaked it somehow getting on her, or maybe she ran and jumped down the ramp weird. Who knows....