Limping Hen

[big brown horse]

Feel for warm areas too.

Lovely hens btw. I have a black ast. too. She isn't big on personality, but she makes up for it in her beauty! I love her big soft brown eyes. (My RIR has hard, almost cat like eyes..but I love her personality!)

You gave me a sudden urge to look at the bottoms of all my gal's feet!!

 

[Dace]

I do love their gorgeous black /green hued feathers! They are so pretty in the sunlight.

I tried to get a good look at her squirmy foot, I hope it is just that she stepped on something. Will feel for hot spots later this morning as well, thanks for that suggestion!

 

[VT-Chicklit]

Dace, Penny Poop, my RIR, was limping back in May. I thought that she might have bumble foot, so I treated her calloused feet for bumble foot. I trimmed the calloused area and then soaked them in epsom salts and warm water. I then tried to clean any hard (bumble) crusts out of the wound. I put bacitracin on the clean wound and placed a gauze pad on her feet and wrapped them in 1 inch wide athletic tape that streches. I cared for her feet for a week, keeping her off them as much as possible by keeping her in the hen house in a crate. She still limped.

I then looked inside the hen house for areas that might injure her feet. I realised that the roost was too high and the roof of the nesting box was an area that she liked to sit and jump down from. I lowered the roost and placed a hay bale with boxes on top on the roof of the nesting box so that she could no longer get up there. This solved the problem. Her limp went away in about 3 weeks.

I guess what I am saying is that it could be any number of things and that you will need to try things until you find out what works. I recomend that you check in to Backyard Chickens. There are great threads about bumble foot and other things that can cause a hen to limp. Good Luck, your chicken girlies are beautiful!

 

[Dace]

Thanks VT Chick....I will keep that in mind, you make a good point about looking for things that she could injure herself on.

I went out again this evening and took another good look at the bottom of her foot and felt up and down her leg...I just don't see anything wrong.

 

[keljonma]

It could be that she just strained it.

 

[big brown horse]

I'm sure you thought of this, but check her hip and back area too. You might need to give freemotion a call so she can have a nice massage...oh, I'm projecting again! 'Scuse me!

 

[Dace]

She is still limping a bit I think it might be getting better. But she is still keeping up with everyone else

I posted my pics on BYC and got some interesting feedback. The bulk seem to think that pic 1 is a BJG and pic 3 is an Aussie. Not what I was expecting and l am not really believing it.

No biggie, I just find it curios that they are supposed to be the same but look different.

 

[PamsPride]

They sure look a lot like my BJGs! The color of the feathers and the way they lay around the neck, and the way the tail feathers come up look just like mine....as well as the combs.

 

[Dace]

Yeah odd huh? The thing is when I look up BAs they look the same. Only difference is that the one has yellow bottoms of her feet and yellow skin.The other two do not. But the big one (Lurch/Baby) does not have the same comb & wattles as the two who look identical (except for the fact that one has yellow skin)

I just can't figure out who is what....although it doesn't matter, I am not breeding I am just very curious!

Thanks for looking!