Lame Chicken - at my wits end :(

[ChookieG]

Hi all! So happy to be part of the BYC community! I'm new to keeping poultry and just bought 4 chooks early Dec 2020 (3 first and then another a week after). About 3 weeks ago, I noticed that one of my chooks, who is at the top of the pecking order, was limping on her left leg. We're guessing she must have injured herself picking on the newcomer as she can is quite aggressive towards her). We checked her leg and it didn't seem broken and there wasn't any swelling either. She seemed to cringe a bit when I gently pressed on her thigh so we made a cast for her that covered above her hock joint to the entire thigh. The following day the cast had slipped out so we decided not to put it back on.

Instead we constructed a small coop to house her in as we were worried the rest will pick on her and to also help rest her leg. She was eating and pooing well but we decided to take her out of the coop after a week as she was panting very hard due to the hot summer weather (95 - 100 deg F). In case you guys up north were wondering.. yes we're in Australia hence the hot weather. When I took her out I noticed that the thigh of the injured leg had totally wasted away to just skin and bones.

We then decided it's best to let her roam around with the other girls to help get the muscles back on her injured leg. The other girls knew something was wrong as they would cluster around her during the day. In the second week, she was trying to walk on her left leg by lifting it up slightly higher up and forward but whenever she does that she'll drop back down. By the third week she had almost stopped moving and she drags her left leg around and flaps her wing to get some balance.

I've looked through many threads regarding lame chickens and have tried to troubleshoot as much as an inexperienced person can. My guess is she may have a slipped tendon on her hock joint so I did what others suggested in BYC in the third week by following the instructions on this link: https://sites.google.com/a/larsencreek.com/chicken-orthopedics/. I made a dressing out of old lycra undies and wrapped it around her hock joint and for the past 3 days have been removing her dressing every morning and massaging and stretching her leg but she doesn't seem to be improving. She beeps constantly now (I'm guessing that this means she's crying and obviously in pain) but she's still eating and pooing though now I have to had feed her. I'm reluctant to send her to the guillotine until I'm sure I've done all I can with the exception of bringing her to the vet as it costs hundreds and I can't afford that. I've included some images of her leg and the bracing I made. Any advice would help! Thank you!

 

[micstrachan]

Hi. I'm so sorry about your hen. This is not my area of expertise, but I wanted to offer some moral support. Have you tried her in a sling to take weight off the leg, but allow her to still touch the ground beneath her so she can try bearing a little weight if she wants? Is the rest of the flock still being kind to her?

Is an avian vet an option?

 

[ChookieG]

Hi. I'm so sorry about your hen. This is not my area of expertise, but I wanted to offer some moral support. Have you tried her in a sling to take weight off the leg, but allow her to still touch the ground beneath her so she can try bearing a little weight if she wants? Is the rest of the flock still being kind to her?

Is an avian vet an option?

Hi micstrachan, thanks so much for your reply. I was thinking the whole of yesterday that if I was an engineer and a vet (like Noel Fitzpatrick) I could have fashioned a bionic leg for her! I never thought of that before I'll definitely try it as soon as I can and let you know how it goes!

Yes the rest (Brains, Hawk, and Big Red) are real darlings.. when I first started strapping her leg they freaked out and ran into the coop. But when I was done Brains ran out, inspected Freckles (the injured girl), and then sat next to her. Brains is the closest to her. The rest followed suit and they would sit by her for the rest of day when they're resting. On day 3 they've realized I'm not doing much harm to Freckles so they've stopped freaking out and have gone back to their normal girlie activities while I'm strapping her.

P.S. I don't know if there are any specialized avian vet here. I live in a rural region and there are 3 vet clinics in my town but my guess is even if there are they'll be too expensive for me to afford. I once brought my cat to one of the clinics when he had a bout of diarrhea and I got charged 60 bucks for just consultation and 120 for an overnight stay with drips. That included a $5 charge for just a tiny sachet of probiotics!!

 

[ChookieG]

Hi micstrachan, thanks so much for your reply. I was thinking the whole of yesterday that if I was an engineer and a vet (like Noel Fitzpatrick) I could have fashioned a bionic leg for her! I never thought of that before I'll definitely try it as soon as I can and let you know how it goes!

Yes the rest (Brains, Hawk, and Big Red) are real darlings.. when I first started strapping her leg they freaked out and ran into the coop. But when I was done Brains ran out, inspected Freckles (the injured girl), and then sat next to her. Brains is the closest to her. The rest followed suit and they would sit by her for the rest of day when they're resting. On day 3 they've realized I'm not doing much harm to Freckles so they've stopped freaking out and have gone back to their normal girlie activities while I'm strapping her.

P.S. I don't know if there are any specialized avian vet here. I live in a rural region and there are 3 vet clinics in my town but my guess is even if there are they'll be too expensive for me to afford. I once brought my cat to one of the clinics when he had a bout of diarrhea and I got charged 60 bucks for just consultation and 120 for an overnight stay with drips. That included a $5 charge for just a tiny sachet of probiotics!!

An update! So I took some time off the following day and rigged up a sling from pictures I've seen online. The good news is Freckles have stopped beeping (crying?) after she went in and immediately started eating and drinking. At the end of the day 1 she produced 5 large healthy looking poo-poos as opposed to just a couple of tiny ones prior to the sling. Here are some pics:


Freckles taking a well needed drink:


The other girls (from left: Brains, Big Red, and Hawk) checking out the new installation:


The following day I installed a barrier (not pictured) surrounding Freckle's food & water as the other ratbags emptied her water cup by midday and Big Red tossed out loads of her food to get to the black sunnies. They seem to think the water cup has some special qualities to it!

On Day 3 I noticed Freckles had lost some of the bulk on her good leg so we've decided she may need a bit of physio to ensure she doesn't end up a cripple! We let her "walk" around for about an hour in the morning and another hour in the afternoon to make sure she's using her leg muscles. She's still in pain but seem to be moving a little bit more than prior to slinging.

Fingers crossed that she'll only get better over time.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about your lame pullet. How old is she? Mareks disease comes to mind when one has a lame leg and the toes are curled under or there appears to be nerve damage. An injury could be very likely, but using the wings to balance is common with both injuries and Mareks. From what I have read, upper leg injuries are more difficult to heal. I would add some B complex vitamins or a bit of liver to her diet for a couple of weeks to see if that helps. The sling can be very helpful, and she does need some time out of it to sleep and rest. Let us know how she gets along.

 

[ChookieG]

Sorry about your lame pullet. How old is she? Mareks disease comes to mind when one has a lame leg and the toes are curled under or there appears to be nerve damage. An injury could be very likely, but using the wings to balance is common with both injuries and Mareks. From what I have read, upper leg injuries are more difficult to heal. I would add some B complex vitamins or a bit of liver to her diet for a couple of weeks to see if that helps. The sling can be very helpful, and she does need some time out of it to sleep and rest. Let us know how she gets along.

Hi Eggcessive, she's 30 weeks old. Yes I have considered Mareks before. I don't know whether the disease just presents itself as lame leg/s as she doesn't exhibit any other external symptoms like involuntary twisting of head, diarrhea, respiratory problems, greying of eyes, etc.

I've also read up about upper leg injuries being difficult to heal. I did consider she may be suffering from a thigh injury as (mentioned before) she cringed when I squeezed her thigh and a hock dislocation usually comes with an inflammation on that joint which she doesn't have.

She's started to shed some skin on her chest area (which sits on the sling). I'm guessing she might be suffering from mites so I'm going to dust some DE on her chest. She's unable to clean her back and sides due to her injury, and this morning I noticed the feathers around her anal area is filthy with poo.

I don't know whether it's more humane to euthanize her now or keep going for another couple of weeks.

I'll try the vitamin supplement and take her out of the sling a few more times in a day for her to rest. She does get carried out of the sling at night and placed in the nesting box to sleep as she's unable to get onto the perch in the coop with the other girls. When she was more mobile in the 2nd week, she could drag herself into the box to sleep but she unable to get in or out of the box now without my help.

 

[ChookieG]

An update! So I've been "exercising" Freckles more frequently. She's in the sling mainly during mealtimes (morning, lunch, dinner) and out of it more often now to help strengthen her leg muscles. The initial couple of days have been wobbly for her. She fell on her face a few times but then things just started to improve thereafter.

About 3 days ago, she moved her left leg! The following day she was moving about with both legs with greater balance - albeit just on her hock but it's far better than when she was just lying down. She's been able to groom herself, forage on grit, and even feed off the main food tray/box.

Standing on her hock and nibbling on grass:


Grooming:


Eat eat eat:



These are small but pretty remarkable improvements. She's still pooing and eating well, and rarely beeps (cry?) nowadays. I don't know whether she'll fully recover but if she's happy and doesn't seem to be in much pain I'm happy to provide palliative care for her for the duration of her life.

Special thanks to micstrachan and Eggcessive for your excellent suggestions! I seriously doubt I would have made it this far without your help! And also thank you to BYC and the general community. This is such a cool site and I'm so glad I'm part of it!

 

[Eggcessive]

Thank you. I am so glad to hea that she has had some improvement in her leg. I had a hen who lost balance and could not stand without falling, and it lasted about 5 weeks. She stayed in a basket and was fed during that time, and one day she decided to stand up and walk around. She was wobbly, but she lived another year and a half before dying of a reproductive disorder. That may have been the cause of her lameness, but hard to know.

As long as your pullet has a will to live, eat and try to get around, I would keep helping her. A lot depends on how much time you have to help her. Hopefully, it is not Mareks. Let us know how she gets along.

 

[ChookieG]

Thank you. I am so glad to hea that she has had some improvement in her leg. I had a hen who lost balance and could not stand without falling, and it lasted about 5 weeks. She stayed in a basket and was fed during that time, and one day she decided to stand up and walk around. She was wobbly, but she lived another year and a half before dying of a reproductive disorder. That may have been the cause of her lameness, but hard to know.

As long as your pullet has a will to live, eat and try to get around, I would keep helping her. A lot depends on how much time you have to help her. Hopefully, it is not Mareks. Let us know how she gets along.

Will do!

 

[ChookieG]

She's standing tall!! (Freckles thinking: "What are you looking at?")


Drinking with firm footing:


Stooping with great balance:


Took these images yesterday afternoon. I was about to pick her up to feed her in her sling when she went over to where the other girls were and starting feeding on the scratch mix on the concrete slab. I just stood there with my mouth opened for a few seconds and then grabbed my phone with delight. She still had the wobbles but certainly am alot more independent.

This morning, she wandered about the run more actively than ever before with very little leg trembling.

She's gained more weight since the last posting and has grown too.

She's definitely looking GOOOD! Will continue to keep you guys posted!