Hen wobbly and not eating much - please help! Edit: definitely not lead poison!

Hi chaps, I have a Lucy update.

We went to New York and despite a troubling email where my friend had locked herself out of the house thus was unable to feed Luce, she managed to get her boyfriend to safely break in with no damage and Lucy survived the week. Yay! My friend was an absolute star - even trying to get Luce to walk by putting her food far away and calling her! For someone who has never had a pet she took to it like a duck to water and gave the best care possible.

Anyway, Luce didn't seem any better but no worse when we got back. Her comb was a little purple but she was lively and eating. Now, two weeks later (after resigning ourselves to keeping her as a hand-fed house pet til the end) she's started walking! It looks like it's a struggle for her and at present she can only manage 5 or 6 steps before sitting down, but often I will go in the kitchen for something and when I get back she's halfway accross the room! It makes a change from stretching her leg backwards and not being able to bring it back down, resulting in lots of flapping and falling on her face!

I'm so pleased. I don't think her eyesight is any better though so that's something we'll need to deal with if she ever goes back into the run, but it's looking hopeful.

She's still going into the hen house at night and I sometimes take her into the garden for a bit to see the others. So far, so good and there hasn't been any pecking order unpleasantness. Maybe when she gets her strength back there'll be an almighty row but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it