Possible broken foot/leg; Update: maybe it's Marek's

[NHchicks]

Those are encouraging stories. I hope she recuperates. I don't mind if she ends up lame, as long as she's not in pain. Right now I think she is.

She plopped herself under the deck in a hard-to-reach area so I'm just letting her sit it out there for the day. I put some food/water in proximity but I don't know if she's touching it. It will be interesting if she is able to make her way to the coop tonight. My daughter carried her this morning from the coop to the house area where everyone else hangs out during the day.

The rooster is sticking close by her side and neglecting his other hens. Does this mean anything?

 

[NHchicks]

Update: hen has been sitting all day, not moving much. We gave her a baby aspirin an hour ago. I hope that's okay. She ate the food it was mixed with.

Think we'll carry her to the coop and place her at floor level for the night, there's a floor level nest with eggs in it (tucked under the roost box), she might like to sit on the eggs for the night in the nest.

 

[The Red Rooster]

I'm glad she's eating. That's a good sign!

I hope she gets better soon. If things get worse, you might be able to call a vet?

I think the rooster is standing by her, because he knows that shes not feeling good and wants to protect her. They really do care for each other. I had a hen that lost her eye. Another hen came over and put her wing over her to comfort her!

 

[dmccann]

I have been having problems with my one hen,yesterday she was knocked over by another when i was feeding them oatmeal,i then noticed bumblefoot, then today she was lame on both legs hardly moving,so this evening i took her to the chiropractor he adjusted her and her one hip did pop,now she is back to using one leg.If there is mored improvement tomorrow i will take her again.

 

[NHchicks]

An update, my hen still is alert and eats but is still not using that leg. We carry her out of the coop in the morning (she stands up but doesn't hop far) and put her in the bushes by the house where she likes to sit. In the evening when she stands up and looks like she wants to go back to the coop with the rest (she hops off the rock wall), we carry her back down and I partition her off in the coop, she sleeps on the egg nest in the bottom. (I only gather the eggs every few days)

The rooster stopped being compassionate and started jumping on her, so I rigged up some wire shelves to fence her off under the bushes. Also the other hens come and steal the food we put out for her. I've also seen some chipmunks bravely run right by her. She sits there all day.

At what point do you say - this is no life for a hen? I'll give it a few more days. Hopefully by then we'll know one way or the other.

 

[Spinster_Sister]

are you adding some vitamins / electrolytes and extra protein/calcium to her diet? buy some powdered poultry vitamins/electrolytes and add to her water. for protein, I poach cube steak or chicken breast and add some pulverized eggshell to it...buttermilk/Greek yogurt. since she will have a week to wait for your husband, maybe that will give her enough time to start demonstrating her healing powers. if not, take a look at this site....http://larsencreek.com/chicken-orthopedics/leg-braces

EDIT: the link above is old, they moved to: www.poultrypedia.com search for podiatric/podiatry

 

[NHchicks]

About protein, I am giving her a lot of treats, and one treat I often give them is the chicken from my daughter's chicken soup - she doesn't eat the chicken believe it or not, so i feed it to the chickens, and I gave this hen some. There was also a cracked egg so I fed it to this hen.

After reading thru some other threads here, I'm getting a little paranoid this could be Marek's, even tho she's 15 months old. I noticed green poo today, and when my daughter carried her back to the coop tonight, she said the hen "stinks". There have been no chicken additions to the flock, but I did hatch eggs in May that were bought from 2 local farms.

Like someone said, when everyone is healthy, owning chickens is great. When they start to get sick and die, it's extremely stressful, and you tend to think - do I really want to go through this AGAIN? Ugh.

And the age old question for me is: when to cull and when not to cull. It's always a judgment call.

When something goes wrong with my chickens, it just makes me very uneasy overall. It's like the world is out of kilter.

 

[dmccann]

i am so sorry for your sick hen ,it semms i have the same battle going on here,best wishs

 

[Brooster's_mom]

I can understand where you are coming from. I have one hen (we call her Limpy) with one leg that she very gingerly steps on. She has had this issue for about one month now. I have seperated her, applied warmth to the affected leg, felt for warm spots, etc. etc. In short, I have done everything I know to do, but despite all of my "interventions" she has managed to continue being "handicapped". HOWEVER, she has managed to adjust wonderfully. She eats well, manages to hop away from my roo when he "feels amorous" and has learned rather well to defend herself from the other hens, who by the way don't bother her like they used to! I think she has enough moxie to not take any b.s. from the rest of the flock. Hope your hen gets better or learns to adjust. Good luck!

 

[NHchicks]

That's encouraging - thank you!

My worst fear is a contagious disease. But I hope it's just an injury. I'm keeping an eye out for her and time will tell.