limping chicken with "slightly" droopy eyelid??

[srfjeld]

This morning I noticed my SLW favoring her left foot. I picked her up and checked her out and I couldn't see anything obvious. When I let them out to free range she mainly stayed in one spot. She's normally the one to run around like crazy. She appears to be eating and drinking okay and is full of energy. No ruffled feathers or anything like that. The other thing I noted is that her left eye lid seems just the slightest bit droopy compared to the wideness of her right eye. I saw that some people mentioned Marek's but her pupil looks fine, it's just her lid. When I picked her up she was able to grip my finger with her left foot, she just doesn't seem to want to put weight on it. I'm hoping maybe she just sprained it? Maybe she jumped down from the roost wrong this morn? I'll watch her over the next couple days but I wanted to check and see if this sounded like anything serious to anyone else.

Thank you,

Stephanie

 

[srfjeld]

bump

 

[srfjeld]

It seems she has no control of her toes. Her foot is curled up and she keeps picking up her foot and making forward motions like she's trying to get her toes to grab onto something. I gotta tell ya. I'm really sick of this. If something happens to her she will be the 4th chicken we've lost as new chicken owners. None of my friends have problems with their birds. Wth?

 

[srfjeld]

Really? No one?

 

[tinalibnania]

I am kind of in the same situation, I think the droopy eye/alert eye has to do with her being startled but tired. Mine is doing same after an injury to the leg that I witnessed. Possibly keeping the one eye open is because they are very startled and is making them over catious....while the other eye is closing because they are exhausted from their trauma

 

[StarLover21]

Bring her inside away from other chickens to avoid stressing the wound. Make sure she's eating and drinking. Check for a break along the leg or foot. If you don't find anything, it may be just a sprain. Keep her somewhere comforatable inside such as a dog kennel for a few days and look for improvement before letting her outside again. Good luck.

 

[srfjeld]

Thank you so much for replying. I was concerned about her last night b/c I set her up on her roost but my boyfriend said she seemed fine this morning. I'm REALLY hoping it's not Marek's and that it is just a sprain or something. I couldn't tell that there was any kind of wound or break to speak of. All seemed okay. I will try to bring her in tonight. I took her in the house last night and she's sooooooo LOUD. She makes my little mini doxie go NUTS and they both drive me crazy.

 

[StarLover21]

I hope she feels better soon!

 

[srfjeld]

When I got home I saw that she was still getting around on the one foot but she seemed to have more energy than yesterday. She was out free ranging with the rest, getting around and putting the other foot down only when she had to for speed. Usually when I was trying to pick her up to check her out. She's not fond of being picked up. She got up the chute to henhouse by herself and even jumped up on the roost herself. I'm letting her behavior guide me and she doesn't appear to be stressed at all. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's just a sprain or something and it's getting better on it's own. Wish that left eye would open wide again.