help! my chickens have been here for barely a week and one of them is lame!

[LilyMunster]

not the one with the funny toe (Peg)... but one of the other miss pepperpots.

i just went out to throw corn mix into the run (which i do at about 6pm to call them in and then shut the run) and one of them is just standing on one leg, holding the other up.
she sort of hopped into the run in the end.

thing is, none of them will let me get close enough to pick em up... havnt even eaten out of my hand yet. apparently they get more compliant once they start laying... but they havnt yet.

what shall i do?

bump for megalegs, norks et al...

awww.......no help, but saying hello and bumpin for ya!

you ought to be concerened psycho - its your namesake whos sick!

......noooooooooooooooooooo

are you sure it's lame and not just hopping? mine hop sometimes! check in the morning

you think the chicken is channelling your pain?

hmmmmm, its a theory..... [nutter]

well........I have to channel the pain somewhere don;t I ........where better than a name sake

i will ska. i dont think theres owt i can do tonight tbh. unless she doesnt make it up the ladder into the house [oh no please] then i will not do anything till then. i think catching her inside the coop will be a nightmare. and then what would i do with her??

i really think shes lame. shes still holding the foot up, and even when she was getting away from me (they sort of run up to me when i come towards them, but back away if i show any sign of bending down to touch them.)

ah man, chickens are sposed to be easy !

oh and apparently the art of forming sentences is beyond me tonight..

Is there a visible lump? Could be bumblefoot.

Now that it's getting dark they should be well settled in the house, you could try picking her up off the perch. Do it firmly and confidently as too much squawking and flapping will set them all off! Otherwise you'll have to corner her in the morning in which case you can ignore all the squawking and flapping as they'll soon get over it!

Then tuck her head under your arm and hold her feet in your hand. Have a good look at the base of her feet, there might be a cut or splinter which needs pulling out. Give it a good swab with warm salty water. There might possibly be a hard lump of poo/mud. Don't prise any dried stuff off the foot but give it a good soaking with warm salty water (2 teaspoons of salt in a mug should do).

Are they youngsters or older birds? Bumblefoot is most common in big hefty hens that have to jump down onto hard floors and thus damage their feet. Youngters often crouch down with cramp (give them thicker, warmer bedding) but they grow out of it.

The lameness may just disappear over night.

Sorry you're having problems so soon! Baptism of fire, eh? (t/shell knows all about that!).

oh thanks you two...
i went out as it got dark and indeed they were all in the cube so i just locked up for the night and will see to it tomorrow.

so i'll go out with the mug of salty water just in case... should i take tweezers??

theyre young - about 17 weeks now. but with the cube, they do have to do a bit of a jump off the end of the ladder to the ground. i put a log there to help as a step, and mostly they use it, but the ladder is plastic with no grip at all and they often get a bit flustered... i hope its not hurting them!
i have seen one of the black ones crouching down a fair bit... it could well be her. i will add more straw with next change tomorrow.
thought there was a fair bit last time, but they all seem to sleep in there (the nesting box) so they compact it down a bit.

thanks so much for all the tips

so ive just been to the vet (pretty much first time in my life) and shes got antibiotics i have to syringe into her mouth once a day

blimmin chickens

So what was the problem?

'some kind of infection in her foot'

hmmm, coulda told her that myself, given that the foot was swollen and hot and clearly v painful.
money for old rope, this vetting lark eh?

That might be bumblefoot then. I had a look at the eglu cubes last night and it doesn't seem too much of a jump for a youngish hen, though if the ladder is very flimsy plastic she may have have damaged her foot slipping off it. Could you knock up a wooden ramp with battened steps on it?

(And I can't believe how much the cube costs - I can get a wooden house for up to 30 birds for that kind of money)!!!

i know nork, i know... but justification is: cube is piece of piss to keep clean (so good for starter)
and resale values hold really well. even if i keep it a year i can ebay it for about the same as purchase price, oddly enough.

i will no doubt upgrade to a big wooden shed converted at some point...

the ladder isnt flimsy, but its not really got any grip iyswim... i think your plan of making a ramp with battens on is a good one (i think the logic behind the cube ladder is that rats cant get up it)