Knocks and bruises

rick

rick

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Yesterday Blaze had a brick topple over and land on her foot (a glancing blow I think.) I can't see any swelling and everything seems mobile but she's limping and standing on one leg. I'm guessing its not too bad and just a sprain or bruise.
Is there any treatment or therapy. Spa and foot massage?
 
They're always in the middle of anything that's happening and running around underfoot. I'm surprised something like this hasn't happened before.
 
Poor girl! If there's no bleeding or apparent signs of deformity or injury, I guess you're right and you'll just have to keep an eye on her for a few days and see how she gets on. There's a long enough wait in A&E for humans needing an x-ray, let alone a hen.
What happens at night if she tries to perch in the coop? Maybe confining her to somewhere she can't try to perch at night, and also in the day if you have perches in your run, might be a good idea.
 
The limp seems to be getting less pronounced so hopefully no real harm done. She perched last night but there's a ramp up to the platform with perch. Out of interest does serious injury (i.e a break) cause swelling in chickens and would it be treatable?
 
What you need to check for is damage to the base of the foot or the leg joints Rick. The injured area will feel slightly warmer and when handled may prompt a squeal or involuntary limb movement. For simple sprains we apply Arnica Gel. Often the sprain can be at the hip in which case there is nothing to do but wait- we had one that took 6 weeks to recover, but she did live another 6 years.

If it was obvious that the chicken was in acute pain we would emergency despatch. I'm sure in theory a broken limb could be operated on, but because of the pain and suffering the bird would experience during the process we wouldn't even consider treatment. There would be no guarantee of success anyway.

Chickens' bones are very light and relatively weak. They need to be light for flight and they also act as stores for egg shell Calcium. Their strength depends on the degree of activity in their development and in ex-battery hens there is little need for movement so the bones can be up to 80% weaker than those of a free ranging chicken. In fact many suffer broken limbs during the course of removal from the cages and subsequent transport and have to be despatched when notice-a very distressing situation indeed.
 
I've gently massaged her whole foot and leg and she seemed to quite like it so I guess OK! I think Boots have Arnica gel, I'll get some for the first aid box.
 
We don't keep any ex-batts Rick. No particular reason really, just that we started with Orpingtons knowing nothing else. Then we took in some rescues -trio of Wyandottes under a noise nuisance order, then some left from a fox attack, then an injured cockerel then some dumped cockerels. Then we had a series of fox attacks. By the time we were settled we were preparing to move which meant no new birds because of the vet inspections.

Re-homing ex-batts is a nice thing to do and they can make great pets. There used to be a farm near us would sell old (2 years) laying hens for £1 each.
 
Quite a throng over the years then. Couldn't agree more. If I had more space I'd take some in. A friend at work does and has one called Sainsbury as that was all the feathers she had when she arrived!
 
Blaze is no longer limping but I noticed yesterday that her toe is swollen and a bit warm. Have washed and dried it and rubbed in some Savalon cream yesterday and today. Seems strange it took so long to swell but its obvious now that was the point of the injury. Hoping its just the healing of a knuckle and not an infection.
 
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