Limping/ Holding leg up

[jilla]

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) RIR, 15 weeks, always has been smaller and thinner than others.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. Limping, Hopping and holding foot up
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? She has always seemed to favor one leg by holding it up but has never limped until today.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Not sure
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. Water with ice and Grower finisher pellet.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Normal
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? I soaked feet in Epsom salts and warm water about 10 minutes and applied Vaseline
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? Treat myself
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use Sand and has a large fenced in back yard to free range all day.

Okay, so this morning when I let the girls out of the coop I noticed T.O came out and laid down in the garden. She has never done that. She has always seemed a little special since I got her as a 3 day old at tractor supply. She would sometimes hold her leg up and seem uncomfortable but I could never find a wound or a mark. She is always the last one to the treats like she can't see or hear that well and is the easiest to catch. So this morning when I went over to check on her she got up slowly and hobbled away( using her wings instead of her feet ). I have checked them over and can't see any swelling or redness, No black mark like with bumble foot. Her nails look clean and healthy. I have checked her upper legs and all over and cant find anything. The only thing I notice is her legs are yellow with a lot of brown on them, the other girls only have yellow on their legs. I thought maybe an early on set of mites ? Any help would be great.....

 

[jilla]

Also unrelated my other 15 week old baby girl Lucy.... I notice during the day her comb and face will go from dark red to very pale but she acts normal. Then later it goes back to red. Could it be from the heat ? We live in Florida and she is the heaviest and pants the most .

 

[PoultryPedia]

Scaley leg mites wouldn't cause her to limp, if it's any help to rule that out. I've never noticed a bird limping from mites. Also both legs would be pretty equally affected, if it was the cause.
I wish I could offer additional help, too. Maybe after her leg gets some time it will heal--maybe recently sprained, in addition to a slight abnormality that has made her always favor it??

 

[jilla]

Thanks so much for answering. She doesn't seem to be limping now but still holds it up off and on. I'm thinking maybe she jumped down wrong from the coop on top of some abnormality like you said. Thanks again

 

[Farmer Viola]

She probably just hurt it jumping, like you said.

I have a chicken with a hurt leg (sprain I think) right now, she's the runt of the flock and has only lived through complete coddling. When I saw her limping, I brought her inside to heal in a small box (so she can't walk on it very much). She was content to just lay motionless in her box all day while it was truly hurting her. That lasted about a week. Now she's starting to walk on it some, but I want her to stay in for extra healing time so she doesn't re-injure it. But, I feel she is a special case because her growth is stunted (her name is literally Runty).

I don't know if you need to do this for your chicken, but this is what I did and she's healing up good