My Brahma is limping

[Hannahhubers]

Hi, I’ve just gotten chickens for the first time. My Brahma hen is about 4 months old and she has started limping recently. It’s gotten worse over the past couple days so I’ve moved her inside so the other chickens won’t pick on her(I don’t think they will anyways because she’s the largest in her flock) and so she can rest. Doesn’t look like bumblefoot to me but I know that sometimes symptoms can show themselves later. I’ve attached a photo of the foot that’s bothering her. Does it look swollen? It’s hard to tell because Brahmas have bigger feet anyways. What should I do? Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

 

[azygous]

What is your location? What is the weather like?

How high is the perch she sleeps on?

Is her balance off or is she just favoring the one foot?

Look on her legs for any light green bruising. See any?

 

[Hannahhubers]

What is your location? What is the weather like?

How high is the perch she sleeps on?

Is her balance off or is she just favoring the one foot?

Look on her legs for any light green bruising. See any?

Hi! I live in Eastern NC and it’s hot and rainy.
The perches were a little high for a Brahma so I lowered them, but my chickens love to crowd on top of a piece of a piece of furniture that I’m using as nesting boxes. It’s about 4ft off the ground. She’s not as likely to fall off that because it’s a flat service, but it’s likely that she fell off the previous perches that I moved.
She is favoring one foot and the other seems to be bothering her.
Me and my husband have been inspecting her foot and can’t find anything.
Yesterday morning she was crying to get out of the cage so I let her go outside. I’m afraid if I keep her in she may get depressed. I only have one rooster and she’s currently bigger than him and all my other chickens so I think she’ll be okay. I’ve been keeping an eye on her and she’s just been snuggling the others, there’s no way I can keep her inside.
I believe that she fell off something high in my coop, she definitely doesn’t seem sick. She’s happy playing with the others just limping a bit. Will she eventually get better if that’s the case? My biggest concern is wild animals thinking she’s a easy target because she’s slow.

 

[azygous]

Definitely keep her with the flock. It's like solitary confinement to a chicken which affects their psychological well being. The only time to separate a chicken is when they might be injured by being kept with the flock.

Deep bedding under perches of any style will almost always solve the injury risk. I would concentrate on piling straw or sand, sort of like they used to do for high jumper competitions before they started using the big air bags.

Her sore foot will heal. But it will continue to be injured until the proper bedding is resolved or all perches are lowered. You may need to block off the high roosting spot regardless of how popular it may be.

As for being a target for a predator, I would keep the whole flock in the run, if you have a run, until this chicken is able to move around better.