My chicken is limping and finds it hard to walk!

[collingwood]

She can't scratch and finds it hard to eat because by the time she's reached the food the others have finished and have walked ages away and she can't find them because their paddock is full of trees and plants and she gets lost!

 

[Mtn Laurel]

Have you checked her to see if/how she's injured? Is there a wound? If not, she could have sprained, pulled, or broken something.

I'd recommend you separate her from the rest of the flock. Put her in a cage and bring her inside so that you can assess her injury and make sure she gets some food and water. She needs to be able to eat if she's going to heal. After you've had a chance to see what's wrong with her, report back here and hopefully someone will have some advice for you.

 

[collingwood]

She doesn't 't have any wounds! She seems to be doing fine with the other chickens do you have any ideas on what she's broken or sprained? My rooster had the same thing but his only lasted a day! This has gone for a week now!

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I have a hen that injured her leg and was in a situation much like your hen. She couldn't get to the food, she was being picked on, and she was hurting. I put her in a cage to keep her from moving around too much and brought her in the house. I felt her leg and couldn't find any obvious break, injury, or slipped tendon.

You should check the bottoms of her feet to make sure she doesn't have bumblefoot.

Sometimes sprains and soft tissue injuries from bumps and bruises take a long time to heal. It took my girl 3 weeks in the cage to get better. I put her back in the run when she seemed better and about a month or so later she hurt it again and we had to start all over. I may have put her out too soon the first time.

Keep your gal confined so she doesn't use the leg too much. Keep food and water in her cage so she can rebuild her strength and begin to heel. When she begins moving about better, take her out for "play time" but put her back in the cage at night so she's not jumping on and off the roost. It might take a month for her leg to totally heal providing it's a sprain only and not a break or slipped tendon.

Best of luck!

 

[Suzie]

You can try using a chick chair...she would need a lot of supervision but to take the weight off of an injury would be helpful to her...you can make one easily...try to google ideas of how to make one..

 

[collingwood]

Okay thanks!

 

[collingwood]

Can they walk in a chick chair?

 

[collingwood]

I caught her today and put her on the trampoline to get a better look! She sat there with one leg up and the other bent! When she walks her left leg joint can't take any weight and bends over! But the other leg walks normally! Both legs seem fine when I look at them and bend and observe them they can both straighten and bend but I think one of them hurts more than the other! Only the left one is functioning differently to a normal chicken!