Hen with broken leg - near hock.

I swear, if it's not one thing it's another.

Being a week after one of the horses got close & personal with a porcupine - Last night I got a phone call from the woman who owns the property where I keep the chickens & my horse. It was her night to do barn chores. She told me that one of the hens was behind one of the run in sheds, & they went to get her she came out hopping on one leg. It looked to be broken. She put her in her own stall & when I went up this morning I put her in a dog crate, elevated it enough so that she can get some fresh air & sunshine through the top dutch door. She's eating, & drinking. She's mostly laying on her good side, keeping her bad leg on top & pulled up. She moves her toes, but just slightly & doesn't grip with them. Every now & again she'll sit slightly up right, but still not putting weight on the bad leg (which is good). I've felt the entire leg, & it almost feels like it's in the hock joint, or right above it. It felt a little out of place this morning, but I'm pretty sure that I put it back right before I felt like I was going to pass out.

I think that she just got in the way of one of the horses, got stepped on, & panicked before the horse got off of her. No open wounds. I've been trying to do a lot of reading chickens with broken legs on-line. I've read a lot about just leaving them in something small for about a month & not splinting, that splinting can do more harm than good.

Does anyone have any pointers? To splint, or not to splint? If splinting is the way to go, how the heck would I splint that area? I'm giving her some mealworms for extra protein, & vitamins & electrolytes in her water. Is there anything else that I can give her to help her out?

I know some may think that I should just put her down, but she seems to be acting well (alert, bright eyed, eating, drinking, not making any noises) & it's hard to think about putting her down if she might make it. There's not really any good bird vets in my area. Mostly dog, cat, cow, & horse vets.

I think you are doing well so far. Various things can be used for splinting such as padded popsicle sticks, finger splints, thick layers of tape, and cardboard. This area of the leg is easier to splint than the femur. Look at page 10, and pages20-21 on this link for splinting instructions: http://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf

I picked up some popsicle sticks from the store & made a splint the best that I could. I don't really know if I did it correctly or not. I don't know what I'm doing, plus the part of wanting to pass out doesn't really help, but it feels straight & it's now kept still so hopefully it will heal better. I also put her in a sling so that she's not putting weight on it & moving it while she's laying down & moving around. She's eating pretty well, & really enjoys her daily yogurt with comfrey & mealworms. She's also drinking, & seems alert, & a little bored. Poop seems normal. I really hope that everything goes well. If she's willing to try to keep going, I'm willing to help her out so that she can heal.

Hopefully she's healing well! 2 days ago I saw slight movement in 1 toe, yesterday there was slight movement in 2 toes, & this morning there was slight movement in 3 toes. She's still not trying to grip, & she doesn't move the toes a lot .... but I have hope!

We had a chicken that broke her leg and it sounds like yours did to. The vet amputated the part of the chicken's leg that we could see 3 years ago and she is now the sweetest chicken. I think that you should find out about it and maybe do it to your hen.

She did break it for sure. I took her out of the sling & took the splint off yesterday. She has a very good bone callus. She was able to stand on it, but now she needs a little bit of physical therapy to get walking on it again. I don't want to push her too soon, but I know the sooner she can walk on it, the better. Does anyone have any recommendations for physical therapy? & how much of what is a good amount without pushing her too soon???

Do you think that it has had time to heal fully? I haven't treated any broken bones yet thank goodness, but I'm glad she has the bone callus. How is she doing outside of the sling? Have you tried lowering the sling where her feet are on the ground so that she could put partial weight gradually on the leg? That might get her muscles working again. Keep us up to date on her condition.

I sure hope it's had time to heal! I've read a bunch of things, ranging from a broken leg with the bone being out of the skin healing in 10 days, to it taking 4 weeks. So far, this site has been very helpful.

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2014/02/BrokenLeg.html?m=1

I don't want to push her, since I don't know how well it's healed, but the good sized bone callus makes me hopeful. She's taken a few steps, so I guess that's good. As long as she's willing, so am I!

wow the leg bone must have barly been together

It was broken all the way thru. I almost passed out when I set it & wrapped it. :-/ Right now she's laying down a lot, but today she did make a 90* turn in her crate, so I moved her to a horse stall so she'll have more room incase she needs it. Today I started doing a little physical therapy .... just holding her while she gets use to standing.