Limping 7 mo. Barred Rock Chicken

[denhenhouse]

I went out this morning to check on the girls and noticed one of my hens was limping. She was still energetic and making it around the yard fine, just slowly. I picked her up and checked for visible sores, injuries, discoloration on her leg/foot and found nothing. I left for work and decided to check on her when I got home. When I got home and realized she was still limping I decided to soak her leg a bit in epsom salt for a little while, which was recommended on a few other threads.

Here's a video of her behavior this morning. Later this afternoon it was a bit different of a limp, seeming to be trouble bending and flexing the ankle or knee joint. She'll stop and just lay on the ground to peck around.

any advice? should I confine her a bit and encourage her to rest with easy access to food and water? any other tips or treatment?

 

[Barbs Girls]

@Texas Kiki

 

[Kiki]

Any new birds brought home in the last few months?
Can you get a picture of the foot she is limping on... A close up that is clear?

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

It doesn’t look like the bottom of her foot is hurting, more like the upper joint in her leg....
Let me reach out to others that may be of better assistance....
Good luck!
@casportpony @azygous @aart @staceyj @Eggcessive

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would wait and watch. You could confine her but that may cause her to panic. An injury should slowly improve. Something like Mareks would continue to worsen.

 

[nchls school]

I went out this morning to check on the girls and noticed one of my hens was limping. She was still energetic and making it around the yard fine, just slowly. I picked her up and checked for visible sores, injuries, discoloration on her leg/foot and found nothing. I left for work and decided to check on her when I got home. When I got home and realized she was still limping I decided to soak her leg a bit in epsom salt for a little while, which was recommended on a few other threads.

Here's a video of her behavior this morning. Later this afternoon it was a bit different of a limp, seeming to be trouble bending and flexing the ankle or knee joint. She'll stop and just lay on the ground to peck around.

any advice? should I confine her a bit and encourage her to rest with easy access to food and water? any other tips or treatment?

If you have roosters or the hen is being picked on I would confine her separately. Otherwise I'd leave her as is. Try to identify which part of the leg is causing the limp; ex. is she walking on her toes of that foot-then you'd know it's the pad of the foot.
Keep on as you are doing. Good luck.

 

[Kiki]

The bird of yours that passed at the end of last year...did she walk like this too?

 

[azygous]

A few weeks ago my seven-year old Speckled Sussex hen Geobett was limping around exactly like your hen in the video. I suspected it was a sprained leg since she was perfectly fine the day before.

I gave her one baby aspirin twice a day for about a week, and it gradually healed. No residual limp, all good.

This is what I suspect happened to your hen. Try the baby aspirin, 81 grain tablet directly into the beak. It will relieve the pain some, and it will also help heal the tissue inflammation.

 

[denhenhouse]

Any new birds brought home in the last few months?
Can you get a picture of the foot she is limping on... A close up that is clear?

No new birds - just her and one other bird we bought together. I’ll take some pictures of her feet in the am. It’s dark now.

 

[denhenhouse]

If you have roosters or the hen is being picked on I would confine her separately. Otherwise I'd leave her as is. Try to identify which part of the leg is causing the limp; ex. is she walking on her toes of that foot-then you'd know it's the pad of the foot.
Keep on as you are doing. Good luck.

Thank you! It definitely appears to be the joint and putting pressure on it but I’ll keep watching. No one else is picking on her.
Thanks for the advice.