Red leghorn has been limping when she started molting but has no foot injury

[chrissyd79]

My red leghor, Princess Lay A is 18 months old and started molting about a month ago. A couple of weeks ago she stopped wanting to go outside and doesn’t perch at night. She creeps slowly and limps but I can’t find any injuries on her feet. She eats and drinks. The past couple of days I’ve carried her outside for a few hours and she eats and peas at the ground but doesn’t run and scratch like the others. The other chickens are almost done molting and one starting laying eggs already, she’s the only one who is not doing well. I’ve been feeding her extra protein like live worms, dry crickets, Greek yogurt mixed with oats. When she stands up sometimes she uses her wings for support, although yesterday she ran cross the yard when she got scared.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I’ve been feeding her extra protein like live worms, dry crickets, Greek yogurt mixed with oats. When she stands up sometimes she uses her wings for support

I'm sorry she's not doing well.

Can you take a sample of her poop to your vet for a fecal float to see if worms may be part of her problem?

For extra protein I would provide egg, meat or fish or you can feed an all flock feed or chick starter. Get some poultry vitamins into. I would also give her 1/4 tablet B-Complex daily.

Your main focus should be getting her to eat a nutritionally balanced poultry feed with extra protein. Cut treats like fruit/veggies/scratch, etc. to a minimum.

Look her over really well for lice/mites - this article helps you i.d. signs of those https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

Make sure her crop is emptying as well.

Hard to know what's going on with her. Sometimes when a bird goes through a stressful event like molting, an underlying disease like Marek's can present itself. It's possible this is the cause of her decline, but you wouldn't be able to know unless you lose her and have testing/necropsy.
Supportive care with nutrition/vitamins, treating any parasites and keeping her comfortable like you are doing is usually the course of action.

Keep us posted on how she's doing.

 

[chrissyd79]

I'm sorry she's not doing well.

Can you take a sample of her poop to your vet for a fecal float to see if worms may be part of her problem?

For extra protein I would provide egg, meat or fish or you can feed an all flock feed or chick starter. Get some poultry vitamins into. I would also give her 1/4 tablet B-Complex daily.

Your main focus should be getting her to eat a nutritionally balanced poultry feed with extra protein. Cut treats like fruit/veggies/scratch, etc. to a minimum.

Look her over really well for lice/mites - this article helps you i.d. signs of those https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

Make sure her crop is emptying as well.

Hard to know what's going on with her. Sometimes when a bird goes through a stressful event like molting, an underlying disease like Marek's can present itself. It's possible this is the cause of her decline, but you wouldn't be able to know unless you lose her and have testing/necropsy.
Supportive care with nutrition/vitamins, treating any parasites and keeping her comfortable like you are doing is usually the course of action.

Keep us posted on how she's doing.

Thank you for the article, I looked at her skin and it looks like she has dandruff so maybe she has lice? I’m going to try the treatment spray recommend in the article, and spray the other girls in case they’re infected!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You should be able to see bugs moving around if it's lice.
Look around her vent too. The article describes what to look for.

It's not too uncommon for a bird to have keratin shedding during molt, but look closely to see if there are bugs.

 

[chrissyd79]

You should be able to see bugs moving around if it's lice.
Look around her vent too. The article describes what to look for.

It's not too uncommon for a bird to have keratin shedding during molt, but look closely to see if there are bugs.

We looked very closely with a flashlight and magnifying glass at her vent, wings neck, etc like the article said and found no sign of lice or mites. Her skin looked normal beside the molting. I took her outside watched her for a couple of hours and she was actually flapping around the yard a little bit and trying to peck with the other hens. She seemed to do better with the other hens, and they even rallied around her.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I think they do better with the flock unless they are getting picked at. It's good that she got to go outside.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Marek’s? A spinal injury? I don’t know.

 

[kerbotx]

She isn't grooming herself - her tail feathers still have the keratin coating on quite a bit, as well as other feathers, which makes sense since she isn't roosting. (That also accounts for the look of dandruff.) To me, that indicates something is really wrong with her feet/legs. Have you tried soaking her feet in a warm Epsom salt bath? Chickens can pull a muscle or tendon just like we can; they can also land hard on their feet from a high perch, and jam something up, or even break a bone. While the bath won't fix anything, it could be comforting. A chicken sling may be another option that would allow her to be in an upright position, but without having to put weight on her legs - lots of images on Google. Keep her eating & drinking good

 

[chrissyd79]

She isn't grooming herself - her tail feathers still have the keratin coating on quite a bit, as well as other feathers, which makes sense since she isn't roosting. (That also accounts for the look of dandruff.) To me, that indicates something is really wrong with her feet/legs. Have you tried soaking her feet in a warm Epsom salt bath? Chickens can pull a muscle or tendon just like we can; they can also land hard on their feet from a high perch, and jam something up, or even break a bone. While the bath won't fix anything, it could be comforting. A chicken sling may be another option that would allow her to be in an upright position, but without having to put weight on her legs - lots of images on Google. Keep her eating & drinking good

I’ll try the epsom salt, they do like to perch during the day on the windowsill or other weird places. Maybe she landed badly. I looked for cuts or bumble foot but didn’t find anything.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Have you added any new birds to your flock recently?