Success Stories of Limping Chickens

[uranni31]

Please.... Looking for encouragement for a limping chicken. My chicken has been limping for about a month now. She got better but before I could realize that the limp was due to a high roost (high roosting bar removed), she reinjured the leg again. She is back in the cage and is eating and drinking well, with the other chickens around her.
Any success stories of limping chicken who got better after time, will really give me hope. Because all my mind keeps going to is having to cull her which I don't want to do but will do it if I have to. Thanks

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Please.... Looking for encouragement for a limping chicken. My chicken has been limping for about a month now. She got better but before I could realize that the limp was due to a high roost (high roosting bar removed), she reinjured the leg again. She is back in the cage and is eating and drinking well, with the other chickens around her.
Any success stories of limping chicken who got better after time, will really give me hope. Because all my mind keeps going to is having to cull her which I don't want to do but will do it if I have to. Thanks

Is it a heavy handed limp? Or just a falter as she walks? If she's moving, she's better than if she refuses to walk

 

[uranni31]

Is it a heavy handed limp? Or just a falter as she walks? If she's moving, she's better than if she refuses to walk

Thank you so much for responding. She is moving in her crate. She seems to have a healthy balance between her standing and sitting down. Each day is different with her walk. One day she seems like she is putting more pressure on her foot and the next day, she seems to have a heavy limp with less pressure on the leg. Today, she has a heavier limp. Question... I need clarity on what is considered " resting the leg". We had her in a pretty small crate where she was sitting more. But I wasn't sure if she was irritating the leg more due to a small turn around space when she did move around. So we put her in a bigger crate but with a divider to make the space small but where she have a better turn around with her complete body as opposed to having to almost kinda back up to turn. My question is " Do she need to get out and stretch her leg? Sometimes it seems like if we take her out to clean the cage, it seems like the walk get a little better. But we can't leave her out too long because she then goes to dust bathe and scratch with the injured leg. Just don't know if we are coming or going with her recovery. Do you recommend epsom salt baths to relax the muscle?

 

[RoyalChick]

If she can walk at all (sounds like she can), and you have checked for any wounds (including the bottom of her feet for bumblefoot) then this is most likely some kind of sprain.
Like with humans those typically take 6 or so weeks to resolve.

I can give you some encouragement from my hen Maggie who was a large lady who came nose to beak with a young fox. Maggie flew to escape (which was a sight to behold) but nobody had taught her how to land so she came to earth from an altitude of about 5-6' like a cannon ball. I am not kidding - the thud was earth shaking!

Anyway, not surprisingly Maggie then had a bad limp. Honestly I was surprised it wasn't worse.
I did not isolate her or put her in a cage I just let her be. I made sure that there were lots of food and water stations around the coop and run so she didn't have to walk too far for the essentials.
She spent a lot of time standing on one leg and she would sit and rest after she hobbled somewhere. She was always playing catch up with her friends but mainly there was no drama. She scratched less than normal but still scratched and she dustbathed as normal.
By two months she was perfectly fine.

This was a number of years ago and I have learned a lot of chicken keeping tricks since then and here is my takeaway:
- I do not regret keeping her with the flock and un-restricted. She was able to rest the leg by herself and she would have been more stressed if she had been contained
- I wish I had given her some pain medication in the first few days - I now know that you can give small doses of the standard human medications like ibuprofen or aspirin. I think that would have helped in the first couple of days

Hope that helps and I hope your hen recovers - I am optimistic she will be fine and would encourage you to let her mingle with her buddies.

 

[uranni31]

If she can walk at all (sounds like she can), and you have checked for any wounds (including the bottom of her feet for bumblefoot) then this is most likely some kind of sprain.
Like with humans those typically take 6 or so weeks to resolve.

I can give you some encouragement from my hen Maggie who was a large lady who came nose to beak with a young fox. Maggie flew to escape (which was a sight to behold) but nobody had taught her how to land so she came to earth from an altitude of about 5-6' like a cannon ball. I am not kidding - the thud was earth shaking!

Anyway, not surprisingly Maggie then had a bad limp. Honestly I was surprised it wasn't worse.
I did not isolate her or put her in a cage I just let her be. I made sure that there were lots of food and water stations around the coop and run so she didn't have to walk to far for the essentials.
She spent a lot of time standing on one leg and she would sit and rest after she hobbled somewhere. She was always playing catch up with her friends but mainly there was no drama. She scratched less than normal but still scratched and she dustbathed as normal.
By two months she was perfectly fine.

This was a number of years ago and I have learned a lot of chicken keeping trick since then and here is my takeaway:
- I do not regret keeping her with the flock and un-restricted. She was able to rest the leg by herself and she would have been more stressed if she had been contained
- I wish I had given her some pain medication in the first few days - I now know that you can give small doses of the standard human medications like ibuprofen or aspirin. I think that would have helped in the first couple of days

Hope that helps and I hope your hen recovers - I am optimistic she will be fine and would encourage you to let her mingle with her buddies.

Thank you so much for your post. It definitely gave me hope. She is my husband's favorite hen and I know it would be hard for him to cull her. We will continue on and maybe add short times with her buddies to also give the leg some stretch.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Honestly, if she's walking, she hasn't given up. It's when they give up or cannot use the leg at all that I tend to make the call to put down

 

[Verykeriann]

Thank you so much for your post. It definitely gave me hope. She is my husband's favorite hen and I know it would be hard for him to cull her. We will continue on and maybe add short times with her buddies to also give the leg some stretch.

How is your hen with the limp doing? I have a girl who just started limping for no reason (that I can see), and I'm also looking for some hope.

 

[Titania207]

If she can walk at all (sounds like she can), and you have checked for any wounds (including the bottom of her feet for bumblefoot) then this is most likely some kind of sprain.
Like with humans those typically take 6 or so weeks to resolve.

I can give you some encouragement from my hen Maggie who was a large lady who came nose to beak with a young fox. Maggie flew to escape (which was a sight to behold) but nobody had taught her how to land so she came to earth from an altitude of about 5-6' like a cannon ball. I am not kidding - the thud was earth shaking!

Anyway, not surprisingly Maggie then had a bad limp. Honestly I was surprised it wasn't worse.
I did not isolate her or put her in a cage I just let her be. I made sure that there were lots of food and water stations around the coop and run so she didn't have to walk too far for the essentials.
She spent a lot of time standing on one leg and she would sit and rest after she hobbled somewhere. She was always playing catch up with her friends but mainly there was no drama. She scratched less than normal but still scratched and she dustbathed as normal.
By two months she was perfectly fine.

This was a number of years ago and I have learned a lot of chicken keeping tricks since then and here is my takeaway:
- I do not regret keeping her with the flock and un-restricted. She was able to rest the leg by herself and she would have been more stressed if she had been contained
- I wish I had given her some pain medication in the first few days - I now know that you can give small doses of the standard human medications like ibuprofen or aspirin. I think that would have helped in the first couple of days

Hope that helps and I hope your hen recovers - I am optimistic she will be fine and would encourage you to let her mingle with her buddies.

I just wanted to thank you for this advice. My favorite hen Elvira (18 months) has had a limp for a few days and I can't find any sort of cut or swelling on her foot though she does not want me to touch it. But she seems to be eating and drinking (though with less gusto) and she does follow the other hens and then rests in one place. I was reading all this advice about separating a limping hen but she seems to know enough to rest herself. And I think it would stress her out to be on her own so I am letting her be - glad to hear it has worked for you.