My wife and I have 9 hens which make a pretty good egg supply. These are really free range hens, we live in Eastern WA in the hills and the hens run all over the place during the day. There is both forest and pasture for them to run around in.
The trouble is that one of them has suddenly gone lame and will hardly use her right leg at all. This has happened before but they get better after a day or so. This hen isn’t getting better. We’ve tried restricting her movement for a couple of days to let it heal but that didn’t help. Her legs and feet look perfectly normal.
Any ideas on what we can do? Or at least what might have happened?
Kidding aside - unless you feel like paying for a vet to have a look at her, I suggest you humanely put her down. If you want to eat her afterwards, that’s your business, not mine.
HeyHomie
Well, that’s certainly an option that I’m willing to go with. Trouble is, these are more my wife’s pets than anything else and she’s not too keen on the idea of killing the chicken.
Some chickens are bred to grow so large so fast that they can break their legs from their own weight. I haven’t seen this in laying breeds, as opposed to meat breeds, but if the animal looks like it is in pain it’s best to just eat it.
Well, it’s a Buff Orpington so it’s a meat/eggs hybrid. The chickens are about 9 months old and I think it’s about as large as it’s going to get. I hadn’t heard about chickens getting so fat they broke their own legs, thanks for that.
We have pet chickens too and recently had one die unexpectedly. She was only 2 years old and wasn’t sick - but did act a little different before her death-so we got a little nervous that got bird flu or some other illness that might spread to the flock. We ended up paying an embarrassing sum of money for a necropsy, only to get a report that said she died from “undetermined” causes. I wouldn’t bother taking your hen to the vet, but if she’s in pain-put her out of her misery.
Btw, we’ve never eaten a pet chicken, but I’ve heard that plucking them is a major pain in the ass and not worth the effort.
Enola Gay
I don’t see much point in taking her to the vet as I doubt he could do much anyway. She doesn’t seem to be in pain, she’s eating well enough and tries to keep-up with the others. She also doesn’t mind when I pick her up to look at her legs. Manipulating them gently doesn’t cause any reaction so I don’t think she’s actually hurting. As far as the plucking being a pain, it is. We killed and dressed a turkey a month or so ago and plucking her was a beast of a job.
Killing a chicken is an experience you won’t forget. It is nasty but not that hard. Fill a large container full of scalding water. Chop the chicken’s head off. Have you ever heard the term “Running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off”? That isn’t just a phrase. It probably won’t literally run (it is possible though) but it will jump and flop like no tomorrow so you need some type of lid to keep it contained for a few minutes will those reflexes die. After it sits in the hot water for a few minutes. You peel the feathers by hand. A single chicken won’t take too long but it is nasty work. You will appreciate the work the large chicken companies go through much more once you have that experience.
You can give a chicken aspirin. I’m not sure of the amount something like 25mg per pound. (please look it up and don’t use my numbers)
If you choose to eat it, for one chicken I would just skin it rather than mess with heating up a big pot of boiling water for plucking. You can skin a bird in only a few minutes and get the bulk of the meat and it’s a little bit healthier, though you do lose out on a lot of flavor goodness.
It’s rare but if any other limbs start to look paralyzed, or any other chickens, sequester the chicken and call in a vet.
I’m curious what you think a crowd of strangers on the internet knows about chicken injuries that your poultry vet doesn’t.
According to Herriot’s law, after delaying veterinary attention for a number of weeks, you will bring the chicken to the vet, where it will immediately die.*
*If you don’t know what this joke means, it’s because you haven’t read “All Creatures Great & Small,” the lightly fictionalized memoirs of a farm vet in Yorkshire. Those who have ready it, are snickering. I hope.
Sure, I read those books many years ago. Enjoyed them but don’t remember seeing that law.
As far as what the “crowd of strangers” may or may now know, I’m consistently surprised by the depth of knowledge available here. Pullet in particular, is some kind of professional with chickens. As I mentioned, it’s my wife’s pet chicken and right now, my only realistic options are to put her down immediately or see if she gets better. As she doesn’t act like she’s in pain, I’m leaning toward the latter. Maybe, some of the crowd knows something that would change my mind.
I still don’t see how your poultry vet is not a “professional with chickens” with a valid opinion to share. You seem entirely certain that there is “nothing he can do” yet somewhere out there, is some arcane knowledge that your vet doesn’t know, applicable to an animal none of us have ever seen?
A poultry vet is obviously a professional with chickens and would hopefully have any required knowledge. However, I do not *have *a poultry vet and taking a hen to a standard pet-vet would probably be a waste of time and money. This is a single hen from a backyard flock. My wife has some sentimental attachment to it and it occasionally produces an egg for breakfast. That is it’s sole value. It will either get better or be put down.
I regret that you do not see the point in me asking. If you consider it inappropriate then please report the thread to a mod.