littlest chicken limping

[sunshine]

yesterday i noticed one of my rescue girls limping in afternoon, thought maybe just tired after first day out, anyway first thing this morning she seemed fine, but this afternoon noticed her limping quite badly and keeps holding it up ,,
had a look but could not see any wound,, but leg was warm,, tomorrow i shall catch her and get my friend to rub some arnica cream on her leg and have a good look ..
although she is lower ranking they do not pick on her and joins in with the bug hunting,, gonna check for leg mites as well

[chookmike]

Hiya

I don't know anything about ex caged hens but she may just have been so surprised at the new world she bumped or jumped badly and taken her first real knock.

Check the bottom of the foot for splinters or cuts too - I think you have done that but mud is returning...

Feel the other leg - they are warm little things - and see if there is a difference. Their blood is at 104F compared to our 97 ( point 6 for all the nurses on here!) so compare the legs as they always feel warm to our hands.

Best of luck - I have followed your posts and send you all good wishes.

Mike

[Snoopy]

Hi Sunshine,
We had a limping hen and took her to the vet who prescribed an anti inflammation/pain relief (Metacam). This was given orally by syringe, you may need two people for this job if your hen is a wriggler and clamps her beak shut!

Best of luck, and hope she mends,

Snoopy.

[chookmike]

Oops - 98.6 isn't it? 37C anyway.

How is she today?

Mike

[albertajune]

I have a chicken who occasionally does what you are describing. I apply Arnicare cream to her leg and it soon is back to normal. As I'm not sure what part of the leg is giving her a problem, I apply it to the whole leg and foot.
Of course it does depend on your girl having an injury or a knock. Arnica is great for bruising so worth trying it. It can be purchased at any chemist.
I hope it is something simple.

[sunshine]

when i think about it she was the last one to be put into cat basket with other two and think she might have got squashed or her leg twisted ,
although they kept glaring at me through wire cant let them out as i have a hospital app: at 4.30pm so they will have to wait till i get home, cant risk foxy loxy paying a visit,

[Hintza]

Interestingly my first born (born here) must have come off the high perch badly one night and hit a lower perch on the way down. For 7-10 days she couldn't even stand on it but with rest and a bit of TLC (food and water brought to her) she is on the mend but it must be over a month now and she still has a slight limp but in all other respects is now back to full fitness.

This week one of my new Hylines started to limp badly and was sitting down a lot so after a day or so I ordered some stuff from the vet but in the end by day 3 she was ok and by day 4 was back to normal.

Time is great healer with tendon and muscle problems.

[pepi]

Sunshine, hopefully, as Hinza said, its just a muscle/tendon problem. If shes using the leg during the day, then seems to go lame, that sounds hopeful. Shes probably pulled something, and it gets tired with all the scratching about etc

I had one of my littlest hybrids go lame about 2 months ago. (In my case it was because she was being bashed by a PB RIR who weighs about 3 times her weight ) She was hardly using her leg at all, I thought it was maybe broken, so I seperated her from the bully, and confined her to a very small part of the Walk-in-Run along with her two tiny friends. She gradually improved, and after about 4-6 weeks was completely sound again

If after checking her and hopefully finding nothing amiss, apply the arnica, then if necessary maybe restrict her a little bit (but always within view of the others) for a few days