Limping Hen

[brlarson84]

I have a hen which has been limping pretty bad for about a week. Upon examining her foot and leg I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. I don't feel any broken bones and there is no swelling, redness, or infection that I can see. We have soaked her foot in warm Epsom salt water but that seems to have very little effect. Any ideas on what this could be would be very helpful! Thanks in advance for your helpful responses!

 

[dawg53]

I have a hen which has been limping pretty bad for about a week. Upon examining her foot and leg I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. I don't feel any broken bones and there is no swelling, redness, or infection that I can see. We have soaked her foot in warm Epsom salt water but that seems to have very little effect. Any ideas on what this could be would be very helpful! Thanks in advance for your helpful responses!

I dont know if you have done so or not, but check the bottom of her foot for a dark in color roundish scab. If she has one, it's bumblefoot and could be the cause of her limping. If so, type 'bumblefoot' in the search box and you'll find many threads on how to treat it.
However, your hen has possibly jumped down from a high roost/perch or other high place and pulled a tendon or ligament. Lowering roosts and eliminating high places will solve these types of leg/foot injuries.
I recommend you place your hen in a cage, provide her feed and water. You dont want her walking around making the injury worse, it'll never heal properly. She needs rest and relaxation giving time for the injury to heal. I dont recommend anything for pain, you want her to feel pain so she wont aggravate the injury making it worse by up and walking around, but give her time to settle in the cage as well.
You can go to a pharmacy and purchase vitamin B complex tablets. Then crush a few tablets into powder and sprinkle the powder onto her food to eat, do this for 5 days. This may or may not help speed up her recovery. Then after 5 days, remove her from the cage and see if there's improvement. If not, place her back in the cage for 1 week and sprinkle the vitamin B complex on her feed again. After a week in the cage, remove her again and observe her if there's any improvement. If not, put her back in the cage again, but discontinue the vitamin B complex. If it hasnt helped by then, it'll never help.
These types of injuries take TIME to heal; sometimes a week, a month, several months or never. After a month, I consider it a quality of life issue and may consider to cull the bird depending on the severity of the injury and whether or not the bird can "act" mostly normal without the use of one leg. I've had better luck with hens, not so with roosters. I had one hen that survived one year on one leg and acted completely normal except for scratching and digging. But the continued pressure and weight on her good leg finally gave out and I sadly had to put her down. Good luck.