limping chicken brought inside

[roz]

I have an almost 1 year old hen who started limping a couple of days ago. I believe I found the reason...a cut on the her back toe. I have cleaned off her toe and put bag balm on a few times. My girls have been stuck in our coop for the last few days because of the snow, so it's hard to move around as much. We have a 4x6 coop, but one side has a shelf the length of the coop with nesting boxes leaving it a little narrow. I have to put the water at one end so that it doesnt spill out all of the coop, and it's not the easiest to get to for a limping chicken. She did manage to jump down from the roosting bar in the morning, and jump up at night. So, to get to the point, I brought her inside this morning. She has eaten her food mixed with scrambled eggs, has pooped 3 times in the few hours, seems alert, lays kind of on her side because of her toe, and has only had a sip of water that I can tell. The reason I brought her in was because I was afraid she might not be getting any water. My questions are these. 1) Did I do the right thing? 2) If so, how long do I keep her inside? 3)Will the other girls give her a hard time when I take her back out? 4)Is the temperature change going to be too drastic? It is in the 20s outside which is warm for us lately, but it's in the 60's inside our house.
Any thoughts on all of this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[welasharon]

Soak her foot in some epsom salts warm water. It really helped the one I had. I'll let someone else chime in on the other stuff.
sharon

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I would keep her inside for a few days and also recommend you soak the foot in some warm water with epsoms salts.

 

[cbeth95]

I had this happen to my young hen last summer. She ended up breaking something in her lower leg area. Shes fine now, she just has a limp.

Anyways, to your questions:

1) Yes. Bringing an injured bird in, away from the flock is the best thing to do.

2) Well, it varies on the rate she is going at. I kept my hen inside for a long while, until I knew she was looking well enough to go outside. You may want to bring her outside for a few hours and let her walk around, and then bring her back inside.

3) They may, or may not. But if you are worried about that, you can always put the injured bird in a separate enclosure near the rest of the birds. So they can see one another, without direct contact.

4) I'm not real sure on this one. It seems like going from 60 to 20 degrees would be a large change for a chicken. Does it get warmer in the spring where you live?

Hope this helped! Keep us posted!

 

[roz]

Hi Sandbellie,
I see you are in New England? I am too...in MA. I'm guessing you're having some of the same weather we are. I can't keep her inside until Spring. I cant imagine the rest of the flock would accept her then, and there is no way my husband would go for it either. We have a mixed breed flock, the one I have inside, Zebra, is a barred rock...I believe she is the top of the pecking order. Nobody has ever picked on her. I forgot to mention too, that she has a bare patch on her neck. She had a really strange Fall season...had a limp, the limp went away, she then got a swollen earlobe which went away, then her face got swollen which cleared up, but then her face would turn from grey to red right in front of our eyes. She had stopped laying eggs when she got the first limp, then after all of her ailments she went through a mini molt, but recently started laying eggs again. She never acted sluggish, was always very alert, eating, drinking, "talking". Could she be molting again too? I have a cochin that just molted her neck feathers last week...or atleast that is what I think it is.

 

[cbeth95]

Quote:
Hey there. Yes, I'm from Southern New Hampshire. Nice to meet you.

Thats some pretty odd behavior. Now that you mention where you live, I don't think keeping her inside would be a good idea, due the the temp. difference. And with Spring for us, being so far away, it seems it won't be here for awhile....with all this snow!

I would just soak her foot with some epson salt everyday until it looks better, put her outside, And keep a close watch on her. I'm not sure if she could be molting again...that I can't answer. Do you have any roosters? It may be from them. And if she is top dog in the pecking order, I wouldn't worry about her getting picked on. Barred's are tough.

If she is eating and drinking normally, thats a good sign. Now about the laying; Hens tend to stop laying eggs when it gets closer to winter. Their patterns can be so random, its not even funny. So I wouldn't worry about that at all. She is also young, so that could have some to do with it, too. She'll pick it up nicely when Spring decides to roll around.

 

[roz]

Thanks Sandbellie,
So I dont have epsom salts...can I use something else? I could do it tomorrow when we get out..is that soon enough? So now I'm worried about the temp difference. If I take her out now, is she going to be too cold? She's been inside for the better part of today. She was actually breathing with her mouth open a few minutes ago. I hope I havent made things worse by bringing her in!

 

[cbeth95]

Quote:
You haven't made things worse. Its always good to separate injured birds. I don't know of anything else to use, beside warm water. Maybe some ivory soap? You could do that, warm water and ivory soap until you can get the epson salt. Just take an old, clean rag and kind of wash and soak it.

Hmmmm....about the temp....you could wait until it was sunny out, so there would some sort of warmth. That would be my best guess.