YO GEORGIANS! :)

Ok, so this morning I discovered one of my pullets is injured.
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She was just fine yesterday, and is perfectly healthy. She apparently injured herself at some point this morning. My guess is that she stumbled or fell while getting down from the roost. Anyways, there's no cuts or blood on the leg, and I felt her whole leg, but it isn't swollen or anything, and it doesn't appear to be broken. She can lift it off the ground, but she's hobbling around, and she's been laying down most of the day.

Just a little bit ago I watched her hobble to the coop, jump in, jump on the ladder, and then hop into the nesting box. The journey took about 3 minutes, but she did it! Bless her heart!! She's a fighter.

I'll be bringing her inside tonight to sleep, since I know she can't get on the roost, and I don't want her to freeze to death. It will be about 10 degrees here tonight. I plan to do this for about a week to see if it heals. If I don't see any improvement, I'll have to put her down.
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I like this idea!

So far, it works. It's been nearly a year and I've had no "incidents." We used old hog fencing, you know, the stiff & thick steel kind. My dad cut each row off, so it was a long piece with spikes. Then we inserted the spikes into the bottom holes of the chicken wire, and pounded them into the ground with a sledge hammer. That was Dad's idea.
 
The fact that she's holding it up, and TRYING to use it is great news. It means it's either a simple fracture, or a really bad sprain.

But be warned, even a sprain could take a little while to heal.

The hen that just got attacked yesterday, that I had inside for almost a month, only had a sprain. I had to let it heal 100% because I knew the boys would be on her the moment she went back out. And they were! It made her hobble around again, but not nearly as bad as when the injury first happened. It took a lot of personal strength to walk away and let them figure it out. Two days later, she was still outside, and walking fine.

So yeah, then she got attacked by this possum and killed. *#($%^ $())#% ^)@^
 
Oh dear! I'm so sorry, but I'm glad you caught the creature responsible!

Ok, so I should expect this to take a while then... Thanks for the advice!
She can't stay inside all day, though. The roo is leaving her alone, for the most part. I'll just put her outside when I go to work, and then bring her back in when I get home.
 
Do you (or anyone you know) happen to have an old cage, like a rabbit cage? If so, you can put her in there. That's what I use as both a brooder and a "hospital". Although if the brooder has baby chicks, the hospitalized chicken gets a diaper and stays in my room.
 
Not getting much sleep tonight, I already know. Still have what looks like 14 eggs ready to hatch. Just candled them all to check.
 

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