Wood door fell on hen, leg is swollen and bruised (pictures)

[Joychickees]

A couple days ago my son was playing in the yard and the story he tells me is that he was running past the not yet put up run door that was leaning on a bench and it fell over onto one of the hens. I wasn’t out there so I have to take his word for it.

She has been laying down not moving or trying to stand. She keeps one wing out over that side. She still eats and drinks. She even laid an egg yesterday. Her poops are mostly normal with some random runny brown ones.

In the pictures you can see the left foot and leg are bruised and swollen. (Included the right foot as comparison) the first day I only saw the red bruise spot on the foot but the second day it was swollen.

I brought her inside in a box with food and water. Is there anything I can do to help with healing? Should I attempt to splint it or just let her rest and heal?

Possibly pertinent info, she is an amberlink and about 5 1/2 months old. I appreciate any help.

 

[Ascholten]

I had a hen sustain a major foot injury a few years ago. First day she just laid there really, first week, she barely did anything,but did eat and drink. Over the weeks she slowly healed and would hobble on it, getting better and better every day. It took about 6 to 8 weeks for her to be about normal again.

What you describe / show looks to be more of a crushing injury, like mine had, and not so much a break. Not sure what a splint would do, but id not handle it much. Let her tuck it and hobble as she wants. IF she free ranges she'll probably want to go to one of her hidey holes and hang out there most the day. If she's in, she'll stay to herself. If the others are picking on her, might need to isolate her until she does heal up a bit better.

Poor girl.

That is assuming just the leg is messed up. If she's hanging the wing out too, and a door fell on her? Man, I can't say she isn't crushed / bruised inside too. You might be best keeping her isolated anyways unless she complains about it until she's moving a bit better

aaron

 

[Joychickees]

I had a hen sustain a major foot injury a few years ago. First day she just laid there really, first week, she barely did anything,but did eat and drink. Over the weeks she slowly healed and would hobble on it, getting better and better every day. It took about 6 to 8 weeks for her to be about normal again.

What you describe / show looks to be more of a crushing injury, like mine had, and not so much a break. Not sure what a splint would do, but id not handle it much. Let her tuck it and hobble as she wants. IF she free ranges she'll probably want to go to one of her hidey holes and hang out there most the day. If she's in, she'll stay to herself. If the others are picking on her, might need to isolate her until she does heal up a bit better.

Poor girl.

That is assuming just the leg is messed up. If she's hanging the wing out too, and a door fell on her? Man, I can't say she isn't crushed / bruised inside too. You might be best keeping her isolated anyways unless she complains about it until she's moving a bit better

aaron

The door isn’t finished so it’s like just the frame of the door. So it’s possible it only hit the leg. She seems content to just lay down. I’ve lightly pressed around her body and it seems fine. It seems more that she was holding her wing out over the bad leg. She keeps it tucked too. The only time she seems uncomfortable is when I was checking out the leg. And I didn’t feel any potential breaks when I was feeling her leg so I hope it’s just a sprain/bruising. I feel so bad. I don’t want it to get infected or anything. She’s a nice little hen.

 

[azygous]

If you can afford to take her to a vet and have her x-rayed then you would know if it's just a bruised leg or if every bone in the leg is crushed beyond healing. In other words, you don't know if she will heal on her own in time, or if the leg is crushed so badly that her immune system will auto-amputate it.

One way to tell if she has a broken leg is to stand her up and see if she can put weight on it. If she can stand, even for a little bit, it may not be badly broken, but could still be slightly fractured.

You have a choice to make. One choice is to do nothing and wait to see how it goes.

The other choice requires a lot of commitment and effort to maximize the chances of a positive outcome.

Let's assume you do not have the means or opportunity to take her to a vet. But you want to do all you can to help her save her leg, even knowing the effort may be for nothing.

You would begin with daily Epsom salt soaks to increase the circulation in the leg. This can help heal damaged tissue but won't heal crushed bones. Then you would ice the leg every day for around fifteen minutes at a time several times a day to help reduce swelling and to encourage tissue healing, knowing this won't heal crushed bones. This may need to be done for at least a week, maybe longer.

During this time, she needs to be kept off the leg to avoid further injury. She will need access to grit during this period when she cannot scratch for it on her own.

 

[Joychickees]

If you can afford to take her to a vet and have her x-rayed then you would know if it's just a bruised leg or if every bone in the leg is crushed beyond healing. In other words, you don't know if she will heal on her own in time, or if the leg is crushed so badly that her immune system will auto-amputate it.

One way to tell if she has a broken leg is to stand her up and see if she can put weight on it. If she can stand, even for a little bit, it may not be badly broken, but could still be slightly fractured.

You have a choice to make. One choice is to do nothing and wait to see how it goes.

The other choice requires a lot of commitment and effort to maximize the chances of a positive outcome.

Let's assume you do not have the means or opportunity to take her to a vet. But you want to do all you can to help her save her leg, even knowing the effort may be for nothing.

You would begin with daily Epsom salt soaks to increase the circulation in the leg. This can help heal damaged tissue but won't heal crushed bones. Then you would ice the leg every day for around fifteen minutes at a time several times a day to help reduce swelling and to encourage tissue healing, knowing this won't heal crushed bones. This may need to be done for at least a week, maybe longer.

During this time, she needs to be kept off the leg to avoid further injury. She will need access to grit during this period when she cannot scratch for it on her own.

I appreciate the response. When doing an epsom salt soak, should I just like hold her up so only the leg is in the water? It’s winter where we live and I’d worry about her having wet feathers, even being inside. And how long should a soak be?

She doesn’t try to stand on the leg at all. She keeps it tucked up against her. I can straighten it but she won’t put any weight on it. She doesn’t even try to flop forward. Just lays in one spot. I have food and water near enough that she can easily turn her head to get it and I’m regularly cleaning the bedding under her to make sure no poop is getting stuck to her feathers/vent.

 

[azygous]

Soaks would be as long as you both can tolerate it. I shoot for fifteen minutes and try to get to twenty. Yes, wet feathers would need to be blow dried before returning her to the cold. She should really enjoy that. Most chickens do.

You would need to hold her in the water to be sure the leg is adequately submerged. Epsom salts soaks are a valuable therapy, but they are tedious for both chicken and owner. It will require serious commitment. Also the icing.

 

[Ascholten]

If you can afford to take her to a vet and have her x-rayed then you would know if it's just a bruised leg or if every bone in the leg is crushed beyond healing. In other words, you don't know if she will heal on her own in time, or if the leg is crushed so badly that her immune system will auto-amputate it.

One way to tell if she has a broken leg is to stand her up and see if she can put weight on it. If she can stand, even for a little bit, it may not be badly broken, but could still be slightly fractured.

You have a choice to make. One choice is to do nothing and wait to see how it goes.

The other choice requires a lot of commitment and effort to maximize the chances of a positive outcome.

Let's assume you do not have the means or opportunity to take her to a vet. But you want to do all you can to help her save her leg, even knowing the effort may be for nothing.

You would begin with daily Epsom salt soaks to increase the circulation in the leg. This can help heal damaged tissue but won't heal crushed bones. Then you would ice the leg every day for around fifteen minutes at a time several times a day to help reduce swelling and to encourage tissue healing, knowing this won't heal crushed bones. This may need to be done for at least a week, maybe longer.

During this time, she needs to be kept off the leg to avoid further injury. She will need access to grit during this period when she cannot scratch for it on her own.

and while you are doing all of this, if the chicken is not happy with it she may be kicking and fighting to get away further damaging the leg. Constantly yanking on the leg and stretching and forcing her to use it etc is NOT helpful at all to it. She is keeping it tucked for a reason, so she does NOT have to use it and to try to protect it from being used, twisted, turned, etc which all of are painful. You could be trying to help her, but actually doing more harm with your help. If there are bones healing, being tucked minimizes the movement and lets them heal, constant dunking stretching etc keeps moving and upsetting that heal pattern trying to establish every time. If she does indeed have a broken leg, forcing her to stand on it, does not seem prudent. Just my two eggs worth.