[Mrs Mant]

My chickens free range all day.  I got home this afternoon to find one of them limping.  I can feel no obvious broken bones and I have no idea what has happened.  She is eating and drinking, but has to have a sit down every now and then before getting up to limp about after the other two.  She is not in any obvious distress, but I did wonder if I could use anything for pain relief?

[joyfull]

does her leg feel warm and is her foot pointing in the correct direction (just had a chick with a dislocated leg so my vet had to click it back into place).

[ehs284]

You can give asprin - baby or crushed third of standard asprin in drinking water. Paracetamol cannot be given. Try a search here and other sites for more info. Seeing them limp is awful, but like other animals and humans they do injure themselves jumping around. A twisted ankle is 'common'; if you feel the leg to find no punctures and no breaks, the leg and foot are straight and she is holding the whole leg up then this is likely to be the problem. They recover, but a little TLC is needed so they don't have to run after food. They may have a swollen ankle/etc which doesn't seem to be a problem later on. I've used spray ibuprofen which seems OK although I haven't asked them what relief they get. HTH

[Mrs Mant]

Thanks for the advice. I thought I had read about giving Aspirin, but I wasn't sure what dose.  I have just given her some so I'll see how it goes. The leg is pointing the the correct direction and is as warm as the other leg.  She is limping to food and drink Ok and I have put all 3 girls in a large penned off area in the garden, so she doesn't feel as though she has to keep up with the other 2!

[dizzylizzie]

You can use a pain relief gel on her leg that you use for sprains in humans too.