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heatherjulia

Ex-batt limping???

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Hi everyone

 

We collected our 4 chickens from the BHWT on Saturday. All has been fine but then today one has a limp. She is standing on one leg, and when walking it is clearly painful for her to put weight onto her right leg.

 

I'm sure I read somewhere (either here, or on some BHWT material) that their legs can have bruising, so I wondered if it might be this?? Not sure what would cause that though? Does anyone have any other ideas, or know whether this is a common thing or something to be concerned about??

 

The only other thing we wondered is if it is purely caused by the fact that they are obviously not used to walking around and using their legs so much?

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

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Hi,

 

I think the limp could be from any of the reasons you mention. Ex-bats have certainly had a pretty bad time before they are adopted. I think the best thing you could do for now is just leave them to settle in quietly and see how the limping one is in a week or so. Unless you suspect the leg is actually broken, there is not much more you can do. Chickens are tough little things and generally heal themselves. I do hope she is better soon.

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So sorry to hear your hen is limping. We have exactly the same thing with one of our hens who is also an ex batt.

 

Had her since the beginning of this month and right away she was limping. Taking advice from here and the BHWT we started applying Arnica cream and that seemed to bring the bruising out and quite honestly it was quite awful to look at as it was quite big. The bruise is now all gone and although she is still limping a bit she has definitely improved, although we think she has a way to go yet. The BHWT seem to think it's from how she was pulled out of the cage at the farm and didn't think it necessary for her to see a vet unless we become worried.

 

As she seems well in herself, is eating, drinking and her poos all look normal and she doesn't appear to be in pain even when we manipulate her leg, we are hoping she will be fine.

 

Have you had the chance to examine her foot at all? I know I was asked to make sure our hen didn't have any callouses or something else called bumblefoot on her foot :shock:

 

Hope it goes well with your hen too, it's such a worry when you are new to keeping them I know :?

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hi mercedes, thanks for your message.

 

I wonder if ours has the same thing for the same reason then... perhaps I will give the BHWT careline a call tomorrow. She was fine the first few days and then the limp just appeared today, but then I guess that doesnt necessarily mean it wasnt from being roughly handled on saturday.

 

I havent examined her properly, but we had a good look up close as she was walking around in the run this evening and from what we could see the foot and leg looked fine - no visible signs of injury. So far, she does seem to be eating and drinking ok, but she did go in to bed very early this evening and I wondered if she might be feeling a bit sorry for herself! :( We'll keep a very close eye on her.

 

Was the bruise on yours on the leg, or foot? Or both?

 

I wonder if we should try the arnica cream, or just leave it and see how she is in the next few days... :?

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At first we didn't even think to check the top of Mia's leg as were just rubbing the Arnica in. I was told that Arnica would bring out any bruising, which it obviously did as after a couple of days she had a really huge bruise which was right up high on the inside of her leg and also across the part of her body that was behind her leg, if that makes any sense. Now the bruise is totally gone and apart from the limp she seems fine. What we have found though is that she seems to put weight on her leg a bit more when she is out on the lawn, we think that might be because she has more space to exercise her legs out of the run.

 

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I'm very pleased to say our little Henrietta is MUCH better today. Yesterday there was no change at all, she was no better but hadn't got any worse. We rushed out in the morning before work to get some limestone flour in the hope that it might help somehow, so we mixed that in with their food and we also got some poultry tonic and added it to their water for good measure!

 

I phoned the BHWT careline too - they recommended applying arnica cream and taking her to a vet if she went downhill. We thought we'd wait and see how she was over the next few days before we started using the arnica, and then this morning her leg is 99% back to normal, which is SUCH a huge relief.

 

We have no idea whether the supplements had any effect - possibly not as they would be pretty miraculous to kick in in 24 hours!? But it was worth doing anyway.

 

I guess the time it takes for injuries like that to heal depends on how severe the bruising/sprain was in the first place, so we must have been lucky that hers wasn’t too serious.

 

Mercedes, I really hope your little Mia is 100% soon, at least you can see that she is improving. Thanks for your advice.

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That's great news that she is now better, so pleased for you :D

 

I bought some Poultry Spice for Mia as I believe all the supplements are going to help, even if they don't :lol:

 

Some days I just wish my other half would agree to take Mia to the vet just so we have some peace of mind with her as it seems to worry me more than him. However he thinks the vets are a waste of time with hens as we've had negative experience in the past with vets and only take our dog for her booster or when she is really sick.

 

As Mia seems very well in herself and is eating and drinking and mixing with the other hens we just keep on hoping she will be okay. It may be that she will always limp and as long as she isn't in pain then that's fine. I've been told by lots of people that if she were in pain then we would be aware as we have manipulated her leg and she was fine with it, didn't seem bothered at all :)

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