Leg Lifts

[Chicken Ninja]

I agree with cold feet, ours do it when the ground is cold - like us folding our fingers up into our fists or pulling our hands into the sleeves of a down coat to warm them up! :)

[Colleen Kinzie]

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QR_BBPOST Check for raised scales too.
How old is she? I have a 5 yr old BSL who has trouble with her with her feet in winter. She exhibits similar behaviour when it's cold and damp. Maybe arthritis or a problem with circulation. I don't know - I'm just guessing. I sometimes give mine a foot soak in warm water and Epsom salts, dry off her feet and apply VetRX. It seems to help a bit for a while. Her feet are fine in the warmer months.

Thanks Jaye & Robbie. She just turned 1 this month. I will keep an eye on her. I wish I knew what raised scales look like. I'm going to take a picture of her feet when I put her in the pen around 5:30 and post on here. She's free ranging with her flock so I'll let her be for now.

QR_BBPOST Thanks Jaye & Robbie. She just turned 1 this month. I will keep an eye on her. I wish I knew what raised scales look like. I'm going to take a picture of her feet when I put her in the pen around 5:30 and post on here. She's free ranging with her flock so I'll let her be for now.
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Sandy
Pic of raised leg scales

[Robbie]

I can't tell from that picture, it might look a bit swollen? How does it compare to the other foot? Can you feel if one foot is hotter than the other? Feathered feet and mud can be a bad combination, it's hard to see what is going on and the cold wet muddy feathers can freeze and cause frostbite more easily than non feathered feet. It's hard to see infections, leg mites etc starting up too.
If it were my hen I'd do as Jaye suggested, a good foot soak to get the foot cleaned off, and check thoroughly when completely dry to see if there's any difference in the feet.

[SandyM]

Those are both feet. One is left and one is right. They look normal and I definitely don't see any scales lifted.

I will give her a bath tomorrow and give her a good inspection. Thanks everyone. Here's to hoping it's cold feet!

[Robbie]

I'm pretty sure it's just cold wet feet

[Jaye]

QR_BBPOST Those are both feet. One is left and one is right. They look normal and I definitely don't see any scales lifted.

I will give her a bath tomorrow and give her a good inspection. Thanks everyone. Here's to hoping it's cold feet!

Hey Sandy, when you say, "give her a bath", you mean just a foot soak, right?

[SandyM]

Well no. I was going to bathe her lol. A foot soak is definitely easier. Think I'll start with that.

[WLLady]

Certainly whatever it is its not dire or drastic or life threatening.she is looking pretty good actually. Prob just cold...went to check on the leghorns tonight and all 4 birds had one leg! Lol. Each had the right tucked up standing on the left. Wish i had taken my cellphone because it looked all the world like one legged chicken stock lol

[Jaye]

Honestly, there's no reason to give her a complete bath, since it's just her feet bothering her. Besides, in these temps it's not really advisable to be giving Silkies a bath. Unless they are caked with stuff on their feathers, I would advise against bathing them, because you're also stripping their feathers of protective coating unnecessarily. Also, they take forever to blow dry, and you really do need to make sure they are good and dry before putting them outside again at this time of year. A foot soak and thorough dry-off is really all you need to do. You'll be able to see if there's anything going on with her feet then. I'm betting that Robbie was right: cold feet. Is your coop floor concrete? If so, that holds the cold, so a deeper layer of bedding will really help.

[SandyM]

Coop floor is wood. Has flax bedding but she was out free ranging. It's damp and a bit wet. So today she's in the pen (on the divided side) with a friend. She has wood chips and straw because that is concrete. Actually right now she's dusting. I sure hope it's just cold feet.

I'll have to do her later. Have to meet feed delivery truck (gets delivered to a side road once a month - makes us all look shady hauling bags from a transport to our vehicles lol).

So I make a warm water tub for her and add empson salt. Just let her walk in it?