- Aug 7, 2011
- 15
- 0
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Hello, I'm looking for some suggestions on what could be wrong with our hen. Apologies for my lengthiness: I want to be thorough to help anyone who has some feedback!
We have a very sweet RIR hen named Viola that's about 2 years old now. Unfortunately, she has a recurring leg problem. At the end of this past summer, she suddenly seemed to have hurt her right leg. She held it up and tried her best to limp around without using it. Thorough inspections revealed no evident wounds to the feet or legs, nor any obvious particular sore spots. We isolated her from the other hens and brought her inside where we could give her extra attention. Over time, her limp got better and better until it was unnoticeable unless you knew to look for her handling the foot a little differently. Then she seemed to hurt it again suddenly. It got better. Then she hurt it again.
Some new fowl-thusiast friends of ours suggested bumblefoot this past injury incident several week ago, and we examined her right foot in that light again. It did have some slight swelling and very slight pinkness, but no heat or serious swelling. Our friends gave us a series of antibiotics, which Viola finished last week. It had no effect on the slight swelling of the foot. Meanwhile, her limp was improving again (apparently on its own, following the old cycle) to being barely noticeable, but she hurt it again last night and is limping around barely using the right foot again.
Viola spends the night indoors in a cage with a heat lamp when needed and gets lots of great food and lays a beautiful brown egg every day. During the day she gets sole domain of our fenced front yard, complete with gentle landscaping, pond, and wild bird feeders. We have no leads on anything she could be hurting herself on, or any experience of a behavior of hers that might be causing her to strain herself or something.
Viola is one hen we rescued last spring from a huge batch of one year RIR hens that were kept in too close quarters and not properly cared for. Another hen we rescued from that batch, Madge, was blinded in one eye, and Viola herself came with a little limp. The limp went away again, though, and she showed absolutely no problems (not even a slight favoring) until that initial incident at the end of this past summer.
Any advice or suggestions on what could be the cause especially, but also possible treatments (because I know the origin of chicken maladies are often distressingly opaque, especially in second-hand descriptions).
Thanks in advance!
Twitcherette
We have a very sweet RIR hen named Viola that's about 2 years old now. Unfortunately, she has a recurring leg problem. At the end of this past summer, she suddenly seemed to have hurt her right leg. She held it up and tried her best to limp around without using it. Thorough inspections revealed no evident wounds to the feet or legs, nor any obvious particular sore spots. We isolated her from the other hens and brought her inside where we could give her extra attention. Over time, her limp got better and better until it was unnoticeable unless you knew to look for her handling the foot a little differently. Then she seemed to hurt it again suddenly. It got better. Then she hurt it again.
Some new fowl-thusiast friends of ours suggested bumblefoot this past injury incident several week ago, and we examined her right foot in that light again. It did have some slight swelling and very slight pinkness, but no heat or serious swelling. Our friends gave us a series of antibiotics, which Viola finished last week. It had no effect on the slight swelling of the foot. Meanwhile, her limp was improving again (apparently on its own, following the old cycle) to being barely noticeable, but she hurt it again last night and is limping around barely using the right foot again.
Viola spends the night indoors in a cage with a heat lamp when needed and gets lots of great food and lays a beautiful brown egg every day. During the day she gets sole domain of our fenced front yard, complete with gentle landscaping, pond, and wild bird feeders. We have no leads on anything she could be hurting herself on, or any experience of a behavior of hers that might be causing her to strain herself or something.
Viola is one hen we rescued last spring from a huge batch of one year RIR hens that were kept in too close quarters and not properly cared for. Another hen we rescued from that batch, Madge, was blinded in one eye, and Viola herself came with a little limp. The limp went away again, though, and she showed absolutely no problems (not even a slight favoring) until that initial incident at the end of this past summer.
Any advice or suggestions on what could be the cause especially, but also possible treatments (because I know the origin of chicken maladies are often distressingly opaque, especially in second-hand descriptions).
Thanks in advance!
Twitcherette
