Hey all! I haven't had any chicken emergencies for a good long while, thank goodness, but yesterday one of my favorite gals, Flourbum, was limping quite hard when we let the flock out to free range for the day. She was hatched this March and, up until this point, has been one of the most healthy and energetic of any of my chickens. We have 24 total birds in a large coop (4 mature roosters included), they're locked up at night and released in the morning, anywhere from 8 am to 11 am depending on when we get up.
She's favoring her right leg and seems not to be able to move it or her foot very well. I've stretched it, and done a thorough check of her leg and her foot and don't see anything out of the ordinary except a magenta discoloration which I'm assuming is just the juice from a berry she stepped on near a berry bush in the yard.
I know what to look for with bumblefoot, but there's no "plug" or even a scab. No swollen areas, either.
Birds don't like to let on that they're in pain, so even if she is, she didn't let on when I gently squeezed or prodded any areas of her foot. It looks like she sprained her foot somehow.
We have her separated from the flock in a private area of the coop and we brought her into our patio last night so she wouldn't freeze to death since she can't feed off the warmth of the rest of the flock and it is getting near freezing outside at night. We're probably going to keep her inside our sunporch in a cage until she heals up if there's no improvements by this evening. And if this doesn't work, she'll be going to the vet. She's a beloved pet, not "just a chicken" so we're definitely willing to foot the bill.
Either way, if this can be resolved without a vet, that would be better for us monetarily. Any ideas or thoughts? Something I should be doing different?
She's favoring her right leg and seems not to be able to move it or her foot very well. I've stretched it, and done a thorough check of her leg and her foot and don't see anything out of the ordinary except a magenta discoloration which I'm assuming is just the juice from a berry she stepped on near a berry bush in the yard.
I know what to look for with bumblefoot, but there's no "plug" or even a scab. No swollen areas, either.
Birds don't like to let on that they're in pain, so even if she is, she didn't let on when I gently squeezed or prodded any areas of her foot. It looks like she sprained her foot somehow.We have her separated from the flock in a private area of the coop and we brought her into our patio last night so she wouldn't freeze to death since she can't feed off the warmth of the rest of the flock and it is getting near freezing outside at night. We're probably going to keep her inside our sunporch in a cage until she heals up if there's no improvements by this evening. And if this doesn't work, she'll be going to the vet. She's a beloved pet, not "just a chicken" so we're definitely willing to foot the bill.
Either way, if this can be resolved without a vet, that would be better for us monetarily. Any ideas or thoughts? Something I should be doing different?
We brought her inside and she's been doing well. She's eating and drinking fine, though she needs some encouragement at times because this issue just so happened to coincide with us switching to a different layer crumble and I don't think she's happy about it. She uses her leg to prop herself up, though she doesn't walk with it very well and she can't always open her toes properly. She's the same friendly little hen she was before, except for the leg. :>
