Floppy leg - please help!!

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fluffy

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Floppy leg - please help!!
« on: July 30, 2007, 20:21 »
Hi folks
We started keeping chickens at easter so are real newbies!  We are due to go away on Friday and one of our cream legbars (hatched last year) is off her leg.  It started a few weeks ago when we thought she'd broken her toe (my husband's a vet but no chicken expert!!).  So hubby splinted it with a cotton bud and tape and a week later when we took it off she seemed fine on it.  However 10 days later I return home after a week away and she is walking on her knee/elbow joint - sometimes the foot flexes and sometimes it looks pretty floppy.  Hubby has inspected said bird and declared it''s not broken and she has some reflex/feeling in her toes and we suspect it is nerve problem.  The probem is that we are away for 3 weeks on friday and leaving our girls to be looked after by a family (very capable) with 3 young children.  I almost feel that the best option is to say goodbye to her now - but she is my most characterful chook!  The other 6 chooks are all doing well and laying daily - I think sapphire has stopped laying the last 2 days at least.  Any advice out there would be much appreciated???
thanks jane
 :cry:

PS forgot to say - she has a very small comb and i always wondered whether this was a bad sign??

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Aunt Sally

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Floppy leg - please help!!
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2007, 23:49 »
Hi Jane - Welcome to the site

Sorry to hear about your chook,  I'm sure there is not much we could tell you that your husband couldn't.  Does he know any bird specialist vets ?

There are a number of conditions it could be from viral or poisoning to tumours.  It seems odd that she recovered use after it had been splinted and then it occurred again.  

I expect your OH has better resources than we do but I often refer to the Merck Veterinary Manual : http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp  but can't find anything there which completely fits your hen.  It's a difficult decision you have to make now but you have a few days to observe her and see if she is deteriorating and perhaps your husband may be able to make a diagnosis before then.  

If she is eating and drinking and able to move about with a splint it might just be local damage, which in a birds leg can take quite a long time to mend as they have quite a poor blood supply.  

Good luck, do let us know what happens
 :D

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fluffy

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update
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2007, 12:32 »
Apparently birds (well parrots anyway) can get infections in their kidneys which can affect the nerve  that goes down to the leg.  So hubby is treating her with antibiotics - it should respond quickly if that's what it is - we're hoping she's on the mend before Friday.  We'll keep you posted in case it does work and it can help someone else out in future.
Any other thoughts still welcome.
jane

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Aunt Sally

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Floppy leg - please help!!
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2007, 14:08 »
I hope she makes a good recovery,  keep us posted  :D

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fluffy

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Sad news I'm afraid!
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2007, 21:27 »
Well it's been a very sad evening - poor sapphire wasn't getting better and was infact getting worst hopping around.  She'd been very vocal today and hadn't sounded her normal happy chucky self so we felt the kindest thing to do was to send her to chucky heaven.  It would have been dreadful for her to have gone further downhill in our absence - she was obviously feeling very unwell.
Sorry it wasn't a happier ending.
Jane

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Aunt Sally

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Floppy leg - please help!!
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2007, 21:33 »
Hard decision to make but I'm sure you did the best  :cry:

You weren't able to talk Hubby into doing a PM I suppose  :?:



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