Rehab for Hip Injury

[Farmgirl1878]

Hi all! My three year old alpha hen, Butterfly, injured her hip last year. She’s recovered, but since the weather has dropped from 70° to 30°, she‘s a little gimpy. She’s still her normal, chatty, happy self, but I think her hip is stiff and probably sore. (Just like my back!) The coop is dry and draft-free, the run is wrapped in plastic, but the sand is cold. I’ve replaced her favorite roosting spot with a 6” wide board, so she can sprawl out and there are plenty of wide roosting spaces in the run, but she seems hesitant to hop up, so just flops onto the sand.

She injured her hip while “rooster fighting” (jumping up and fighting with her feet) with another of my hens. I treated her with baby aspirin until she figured out all my tricks to get her to eat it. While she was injured, her personality did change so I could tell she was in pain. Right now, I think she’s just stiff from the cold because once she gets up and starts stretching out, she moves normally.

Do you guys have any recommendations of things I can do to make her life easier and keep her healthy and in less pain? She’s still so young and has such a wonderful personality that I don’t want to cull her unless she starts to go downhill. She likes to nap in the nest box on windy days like today when the rest of the flock hangs in the coop. Maybe a heated pad under the sand in the nest box?

 

[coach723]

If she's not wanting to jump up or down you may need to make accomodations for her disabliity. Steps or ramps up and down from those places would make it easier for her. Or something softer than sand in those area's. Not knowing exactly what kind of injury she had it's hard to say if it will get better than it is now, or not. I'm not a fan of heating in the coop, fire risk would not be one I'd be willing to take. If she's healthy and feathered the temps should not be an issue.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

If she's not wanting to jump up or down you may need to make accomodations for her disabliity. Steps or ramps up and down from those places would make it easier for her. Or something softer than sand in those area's. Not knowing exactly what kind of injury she had it's hard to say if it will get better than it is now, or not. I'm not a fan of heating in the coop, fire risk would not be one I'd be willing to take. If she's healthy and feathered the temps should not be an issue.

The ramps are a good idea. Most of the time, she jumps up to the entrance to the coop instead of using the ramp, but she will walk up when she needs to. I’m inclined to redesign the roosts and lower everything because my six-month old Brahma chicks are pretty rambunctious and want to fly off the upper poop deck. The only consideration is that if I lower the roosts, I lose my segregation space for broodies or injuries that require a hospital space.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

Here’s the link to the thread detailing her initial injury.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/alpha-hen-ailing.1484129/

 

[coach723]

I like my larger birds, like brahma's to have no distance larger than about 18 inches to have to jump. Some birds don't like ramps. You could try stacking hay or straw bales in steps, that sometimes works well. They tend to try to take the easy way up or down and if there are a lot of birds, and traffic jams ensue, then they tend to jump rather than wait or try to go through. I've found that my birds roost better on 2x4's or 2x3's turned wide side up. I can't see how your coop looks on the right, maybe you can add a lower roost along that side and still keep your space below. At 3 years old it's possible that there are other things going on with her, particularly since this has been going on since July (if I'm reading right).

 

[Farmgirl1878]

I like my larger birds, like brahma's to have no distance larger than about 18 inches to have to jump. Some birds don't like ramps. You could try stacking hay or straw bales in steps, that sometimes works well. They tend to try to take the easy way up or down and if there are a lot of birds, and traffic jams ensue, then they tend to jump rather than wait or try to go through. I've found that my birds roost better on 2x4's or 2x3's turned wide side up. I can't see how your coop looks on the right, maybe you can add a lower roost along that side and still keep your space below. At 3 years old it's possible that there are other things going on with her, particularly since this has been going on since July (if I'm reading right).

She actually recovered and didn’t seem stiff until the first cold snap. Prior to that, she was jumping around as normal and eating like a stevedor. She’s still eating like a stevedore, just moving a little slowly.

I have two levels of poop deck. The lowest as about 18 inches off the floor and the highest (which is reached from the lower deck) is nearly four feet off the floor. I have the broody pen under the higher deck, but can use the dog crate for injured birds and let the broody raise the chicks from the second nest box.

Dottie raised the Brahma chicks in the nest box and my previous broody did the same several years ago. The second nest box is equally large, so the other girls will still have room to poop ‘em out.