Limping & Shaky Legs

[chunandsnuggles]

My 2.5 year old california white hen has had trouble walking the past week or so and has a limp in her left leg. This has happened to her before and eventually went away, but it seems like it's worse this time.

She just sits most of the day, only walking around if I give worms. And as I gave worms today I noticed both of her legs have a slight tremble sometimes when standing/walking. I don't understand why both legs would have that. She also has trouble with getting up and down steps.


I haven't been able to see what's wrong with her leg, it looks normal so I thought maybe she just fell off the ladder and it was hurting a bit. But the trembling is worrying me now too, I wonder if it's something worse.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

What do you feed including treats?
When is the last time she laid an egg?
Have you added any new birds to your flock?
Could she have eaten anything moldy, rotten or toxic?

I would see that she's eating her normal poultry feed and drinking well. Check to see that her crop is emptying. I would also inspect her legs, toes and feet really well, even the bottom of the feet for any injury, sores or scabs.
Offer supportive vitamin care, give 400IU Vitamin E and 1/4 tablet B-Complex. A little treat of egg once a day would be good too, it will help her absorb the vitamins.

 

[chunandsnuggles]

What do you feed including treats?
When is the last time she laid an egg?
Have you added any new birds to your flock?
Could she have eaten anything moldy, rotten or toxic?

I would see that she's eating her normal poultry feed and drinking well. Check to see that her crop is emptying. I would also inspect her legs, toes and feet really well, even the bottom of the feet for any injury, sores or scabs.
Offer supportive vitamin care, give 400IU Vitamin E and 1/4 tablet B-Complex. A little treat of egg once a day would be good too, it will help her absorb the vitamins.

I feed lay mash with occasional dried mealworms. She last laid an egg probably a week ago, but she's not bound or anything. I haven't added any birds, its always just been her and one other hen.

Honestly recently I haven't been the best when it comes to cleaning their waterer, could that be it? I wonder if something toxic grew because I had gone a while without cleaning it. I will be sure to get back on schedule with cleaning though.

I did inspect her but I will try again tomorrow. Her crop empties, and she does eat and drink but only a little bit. I have electrolyte powder so I've been adding that to the water if that's good enough for vitamins, and I will start feeding her eggs. I appreciate your reply

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Electrolytes usually don't contain many vitamins.
When you can, I would try to get the vitamins (you can find them at WalMart) or use a poultry vitamin like Poultry Cell.

Even if she's not egg bound, she may be having some reproductive issues. It wouldn't hurt to give her a Calcium tablet for 3 days to see if that helps as well.

I would encourage her to eat and drink. Egg is a good choice to try to entice her.

While you check her over, don't forget to look for bugs on her like lice or mites.
I hope she gets better, keep me posted.

 

[chunandsnuggles]

Electrolytes usually don't contain many vitamins.
When you can, I would try to get the vitamins (you can find them at WalMart) or use a poultry vitamin like Poultry Cell.

Even if she's not egg bound, she may be having some reproductive issues. It wouldn't hurt to give her a Calcium tablet for 3 days to see if that helps as well.

I would encourage her to eat and drink. Egg is a good choice to try to entice her.

While you check her over, don't forget to look for bugs on her like lice or mites.
I hope she gets better, keep me posted.

Thanks. I haven't heard of calcium tablets before, is there a specific dosage? She has had problems in the past with soft shells and no shells on her eggs, I'm sure that would help a lot.

 

[chunandsnuggles]

Electrolytes usually don't contain many vitamins.
When you can, I would try to get the vitamins (you can find them at WalMart) or use a poultry vitamin like Poultry Cell.

Even if she's not egg bound, she may be having some reproductive issues. It wouldn't hurt to give her a Calcium tablet for 3 days to see if that helps as well.

I would encourage her to eat and drink. Egg is a good choice to try to entice her.

While you check her over, don't forget to look for bugs on her like lice or mites.
I hope she gets better, keep me posted.

I did find a couple of teeny red dots on her left foot, could that be the problem? Do you know what this is?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

What does the whole bottom of her foot look like?

I don't really see anything concerning about the dots.

For Calcium, you can find Calcium with D3 at stores like WalMart, just give her 1 tablet a day for 3-5 days.

 

[chunandsnuggles]

What does the whole bottom of her foot look like?

I don't really see anything concerning about the dots.

For Calcium, you can find Calcium with D3 at stores like WalMart, just give her 1 tablet a day for 3-5 days.

View attachment 2994754

Thanks, I'll see if I can get some of those asap. Here's the bottom of her foot, and a video of her walking . Based on her past, I do now think it's probably a reproductive issue, thanks for pointing that possibility out to me.

 

[chunandsnuggles]

Also, do you have any tips on how to get her to swallow those? I'd imagine gummies would be easier to entice her with, but the ones I find are a much lower dosage.
I used to give her aspirin since she seemed in pain, but she soon stopped willingly eating it and I couldn't figure out how to get her to take pills anymore.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She has large wattles. Get a hold of her, pull down her wattles to open the beak and pop the tablet in. She can swallow it. Aspirin is o.k. to give for a couple of days, but it's not good to give long term.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

Hard to see the bottom of her foot clearly, getting clear photos can be a pain!
Take a closer look at those 2 places I have circled.