Between Christmas and New Year our 3 year old Cream Legbar developed a limp and was clearly favouring one leg, her tail was down and she was a little fluffy looking.It's worth mentioning that it was very stormy, so we assumed she'd perhaps been blown off the ramp and landed badly. After checking for the obvious bumblefoot and no lose of sensation we were hopeful it was a minor bump and it would resolve itself. Over the next few days there was improvement where she appeared to scratch the ground with both feet and the limp became less obvious. Then around about the 5th day she came out of the house walking like a pirate, standing on the lame foot and occasionally tripping over. There appeared to be a loss of sensation with apparent weakness in the leg and toes. The following day the vets reopened so booked her in, despite the chicken now only able to hop on the good leg the vet can find no obvious mechanical issue- no dislocation, no break and in all other regards the chicken is totally normal. She is now in a pet carrier to restrict movement and on 0.7ml daily of metacam (a NSAID usually prescribed for cats and dogs), She's happy enough, but still no improvement with the leg. Any suggestions or similar stories?
Have you added any new birds in the last couple of months from another flock? Besides the anti-inflammatory, I would use some poultry vitamins, and make sure that her feed is fresh. More than likely it is just a bad injury, and sometimes they never fully recover. I have had a couple like that, but also have seen a couple recover from a bad sprain. She may have sustained nerve damage, but Mareks also comes to mind with lameness and loss of sensation. Hopefully that is not her problem. You might check out the many homemade chickens slings to get her up and in reach of her food and water. Here are some pics of chick chairs and slings that people have made.
