Senior hen with inflamed joints, what to supplement?

[silentmaple]

Hello!
I have a senior hen (roughly 9-10 yrs) who seems to have minor inflammation in the joints of one leg. She is walking fine, just seems uncomfortable, she flicks her leg back occasionally as if it was caught on something. I don't want to put her on long-term meds yet, is there any supplement that people would suggest to reduce inflammation or for joint support? I've seen turmeric suggested. but I am a bit lost on what the dosage would be.

 

[SourRoses]

In mammals like horses, dogs, humans, MSM is the most effective non-prescription anti-inflammatory. It's also very safe.

Healthline - MSM

However, I don't know for sure if it's safe for birds. Most things that mammals can take are safe for them too, but we need an expert to weigh in.

 

[SourRoses]

Ok, I went to read some studies, and it is tested in poultry as safe. They've studied it for a variety of applications in chickens with mixed results.
I tried to find a normal dose for it, but they are all over the place!
Although it's not the correct way to cite, I'm tired so I just grabbed a couple quotes from different studies to show the range of doses used.

MSM is a natural constituent of the environment and it is found in plants, including corn [20]. Total S contents were analyzed with an elemental analyzer (EA 1110 CHN; CE instruments, Rodano, MI, Italy) and the control diet was found to contain 1.5 g S/kg of diet. Lim et al. [21] suggested that dietary MSM can be used from 0.1 to 4.0 g per kg of diet. In addition, the toxic level was defined as 4.85 g/day [22]. Thus, we decided to gradually add MSM up to 4.0 g per kg of diet.

Compared to other MSM studies on oxidative stress and immune function, dose of MSM used in the present study was low (estimated 414–694 mg/kg BW when supplemented at the rate of 0.05% of the diet).

The experimental diets were formulated by mixing corn and soybean meal-based diets with MSM to reach 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 g per kg of diet

MSM at 4 kg/tonne (0.4%; I-MSM)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31111938/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8944815/