Limp

rick

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Brownie, my heaviest chook has a limp. I think it is because she has been flying down from the nest shelf. Also had a clump of dry soil stuck to the bottom of her foot so probably landed heavily on that side. Monitoring and washed her foot. Will put a barrier across the shelf tomorrow so they have to use the ramp.
My fault, I knew they shouldnt have a perch over 18" high but things seemed to be going well.
 
Sometimes 18" is still too high Rick. In my experience some Orpingtons should be kept at 12" or less and we have two that won't perch and two with a perch at 6". Our old and heavy Wyandottes struggle as well. I have realised that a coop needs to have adjustable height perches to suit the breed and unfortunately some of ours are fixed.

The clump of dry soil could be hiding a potential case of bumble foot. Repeated heavy impact can cause a swelling which can cause a split in the pad. Sometimes this can get infected. We have many cases here of pad damage, in our case caused perhaps by the poor ground which contains sharp stones.
 
Cheers Chris. What I hadn't thought of until recently was that chickens see where they want to go then set off in a straight line. The ladder is to one side and the bottom of it is behind the chicken on a mission.
I need to close in the nesting box or make a coop wide set of steps. For the moment have a platform as a step to half the drop.
Anyway, no sign of bumblefoot. I think the soil on the bottom of the foot was picked up and the not worn off as she wasn't using that foot for walking and scratching. After washing it found a bunch of dropping and feathers stuck to it the next day.
Also noticed for the first time that Brownie has developed spurs! They were High-Line eggs so I had assumed that they were as uniform as a genetics lab could manage but now it looks like I owe her an apology for assuming that she was just pigging more food!
 

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