Sore foot/leg?

[mickey328]

Went just now to give the girls a treat and realized one was in the coop...not usual at this time of day. She was huddled at one end and when I offered the treat, she limped heavily...hardly putting any weight on her right foot and even extending her right wing to use as a sort of crutch.

DH put on his magnifying helmet and looked over the foot and so did I...saw nothing out of the ordinary. Her feet were fairly dirty so we washed them off and...still nothing. We moved the joints and palpated everything and see no difference whatsoever from her other leg/foot. No swelling, no redness, no heat, no blood. We tried putting 2 fingers in each foot and letting her stand...she'll grip with the right, but not nearly as tightly as with the "good" one.

Our decision was to put her back in the coop so she doesn't have to climb the ramp and leave her be. We'll check her a couple times a day and hope it corrects itself. I'm hoping it might be just a strain...she may have slipped on the ramp or something.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be grateful. She's a 10 month RSL, and has 5 flockmates the same age.

 

[dawg53]

If you didnt see a round, dark in color scab on the bottom of her foot (bumblefoot)...most likely she has sprained a tendon or ligament. I recommend that you place her in a crate or cage, seperated from the others. She will need rest and relaxation in order to properly heal. Confining her to a cage will prevent more severe injury. These types of injuries take time to heal; sometimes a week, to several months, or never. Provide her feed and water while she's caged. You can add vitamin B complex to her feed to help speed up healing. You can purchase the vitamin B complex at a pharmacy and crush a few tablets into powder and sprinkle it in her feed. Do this for 7 days, then remove her from the cage and see if there's improvement. If not, put her back in the cage and repeat the vitamin B complex treatment for another 7 days. Then remove her from the cage and look for improvement. Hopefully she'll return to almost normal or normal walking by then. If there's no improvement, stop the vitamin B complex and continue to keep her caged limiting her movement until she heals unless it becomes a quality of life issue...then culling will become an option.
These type of injuries are usually caused by a bird jumping down from a high place. Lowering roosts and elimininating high places or lowering them will help prevent these type of injuries.

 

[mickey328]

Bumblefoot was the first thing I thought of, but we looked that foot over with the magnifier and found absolutely nothing, nor did she respond at all to our manipulating any of the joints, so it led us to thinking it's a soft tissue injury of some sort. We take vitamin B complex ourselves, so I'll crush some and start today. Thanks for that advice!

About a cage...do you mean I should keep her in it 24/7? We'll have to find something since the only crate we have is for our little dog and it's small enough she wouldn't even be able to stand in it Plus it's getting quite cold in these parts...we've had heavy frost a couple times already. Too bad we didn't have our rabbit hutches built already...one of those would be pretty much ideal for her.