Limping chicken, not bumble foot

[sincerelyclueless]

Hello! I know there are a ton of posts on this subject (trust me, I read them all night long) but I'm curious if anyone can take a stab at this subject again for me. My 4.5 month old Bielefelder has been limping/hopping on one foot for about 2 days now. When the other chickens free range, she finds a spot in the woods to hide/lay down. She is eating fine and pooping fine and I have inspected every part of her leg/foot. When standing, she sometimes stands on both feet but you can tell she puts more weight on her healthy leg. Sometimes, I'll catch her standing with just her injured leg pulled up. When walking, she uses both feet (so more like limping than hopping) but does not put much weight on the injured leg. Nothing seems to bother her when I apply pressure to various parts of her leg/foot (I assume if she broke something she would jump when I touch the spot). I have her in the garage penned up but even then she insists on limping all around. Tough to get her to just lay down, despite how cozy of a spot I make for her. I looked into vitamin deficiencies but she doesn't present the curled toe/dragging foot symptom. When she wraps her talons of the bad foot/leg around my finger she can grasp pretty strongly. Hoping it is just a sprain? First time with chickens and they always have me on my toes! Loving this community, thanks for all of the help I couldn't raise these guys without you!

 

[celestewducks]

I've had a tendon slip out of it's channel on a duck at the elbow. A gentle pull on the foot, to the back could realign it if that's the problem. Even a little rehab, gentle stretches to the side, to the back, like a person having physical therapy. 5x a direction. Heating pad at nite in the pen?

 

[DonyaQuick]

Could be a sprain or a more cryptic issue like a torn muscle or damaged (but not fully torn) tendon or ligament. I had a hen this year who injured her upper leg and had similar symptoms to yours. Strong foot grab, good coordination, but weak to supporting weight at certain angles. It was something in her knee/thigh area based on the motions that were giving her trouble (getting up from fully lying down was one of them) but I never narrowed it down fully. A bird that wants to move around even with a sore leg should be allowed to do so in order to keep range of motion while healing - generally it's a good thing for them to amble about as much as they feel like they can. But do stop her from jumping if she has any oporunity or inclination to do that. Jumping down in particular does nothing good for cryptic leg problems. My hen wanted to start jumping up/down from things before her leg was fully healed and that was a bit of a battle to curb that; she kept re-aggravating the injury for some time because of that.

 

[sincerelyclueless]

Awesome, thanks for the thoughtful responses. Forgot to mention that her entire leg does feel slightly warmer than her other one (not just the padding of her foot). Would that hint towards anything specific? I know heat is typically associated with infection but I truly cannot see anything at all that looks like bumble foot

 

[DonyaQuick]

Awesome, thanks for the thoughtful responses. Forgot to mention that her entire leg does feel slightly warmer than her other one (not just the padding of her foot). Would that hint towards anything specific? I know heat is typically associated with infection but I truly cannot see anything at all that looks like bumble foot

Awesome, thanks for the thoughtful responses. Forgot to mention that her entire leg does feel slightly warmer than her other one (not just the padding of her foot). Would that hint towards anything specific? I know heat is typically associated with infection but I truly cannot see anything at all that looks like bumble foot

Heat can also be inflammation from injury, and it can be over a larger area than the point of injury itself. If there is no wound or other illness then infection is pretty unlikely.