My chicken has a hurt foot, please help!

[mclou19]

Hi- I have x7 chickens (hybrids) and one of them aged circa 2 years looks like she has hurt her right foot. I was holding her on sunday last and she managed to struggle free and I worry that she perhaps landed a bit funny? She walks still although less and with a limp and she kind of flutters her wings when limping about. I have of course inspected her feet as carefully as I can and I cannot see anything obvious that is causing this e.g. nothing looks swollen or broken and there is no fungal dark patch like I have seen online with bumble-foot. I have been hectic this week so haven't had chance to stand around too much to observe but she seems to have been eating and getting in and out of the hen house morning / night etc. She can't scratch the floor inside the coop but she has been pecking about. This is day 4 since I have noticed this limp. There is no wing drooping. Any advice? Will this fix itself or should I be doing something to help? (The other hens are not appearing to pick on her or anything like that....) thanks.

 

[Eggcessive]

You might try forcing her to rest the leg by confining her to a cage or dog crate with food and water for a week or two. Put some poultry vitamins in her water including B complex. Leg sprains are fairly common, and a broken bone can take a few weeks to heal. Hopefully, it is not something like Mareks disease which usually shows up at a younger age.