My chicken won't put any weight on her foot, what should I do?

[4 CT Chicks]

She started limping a bit 3 days ago, now she won't put any weight on it at all. I can't see any signs of swelling or injury. Not sure what to do but I'm quite concerned.

 

[chickiebaby]

Have you tried carefully touching different parts of her leg and foot, while holding her, just to see how she reacts? This would be the first step in assessing for injury, and in narrowing down what part of the leg or foot we are looking at.

 

[4 CT Chicks]

My husband and I will wrangle her up tonight and see if we can find a specific area of pain.

 

[jjthink]

Also check her for bumblefoot - can do a BYC "search" and get lots of info.

In case it's from injury, try to restrict her movement the next few days and try to avoid have her jump up or down to/from perches etc. This may mean having to be there at bedtime to lift her up before she tries to jump and getting out real early to get her down before she jumps. If this is not possible you may have to keep her confined to a large crate or small room. A perch may be too uncomfortable for her right now anyway. My birds prefer sleeping on a low shelf with lots of cushy pine shavings, another option.

If she is otherwise healthy you could give her something for pain if she seems real uncomfortable. A 325 mg aspirin or two (NO SUBSTITUTES) crushed in a half gallon of water would be somewhat lower than the maximum dose usually recognized for chickens.

Vitamin supplement right now may give her an extra boost. Avia Charge 2000 or Durvet V&E in water. Or similar.

Hope she'll be alright.
JJ

 

[4 CT Chicks]

well, we checked her out. she fussed when we touched both her injured leg and her good one, so not much we could tell from that. despite her reluctance to walk on it she sure is clamoring around in the coop a lot, jumping between nest boxes and up on the roost.

we'll try the pain killers to see if that gives her some relief.

thanks for the advice.

 

[spydertoys]

I had a young ROO who got smashed or something. He was not able to put any weight on one foot at all. I couldn't find anything wrong with it..so I put him in a floor cage so he couldn't move around and so no one would bump into him. He was int hat cage for about a month before he started to improve. Now he is just fine, although he has an almost undetectable limp. But he is still recovering so I think he will probably get back to 100%. It took a lot of patience on my part. I thought for sure he was going to end up table food. He is going to be my #1 Austrolorp Breeder..so it was worth the wait.

 

[4 CT Chicks]

We went out yesterday to check on her and she was barely limping at all. She probably just twisted or jammed something while running about the yard.

 

[Koakley]

My chicken is limping and has been in a small area for the past week with no improvement. I think she still has two much space to move around tho. Is one large dog crate to small for her to be in?