How to Treat a Chicken's Broken Leg or Wing
Is your chicken refusing to walk or dragging its wing? It may be suffering from a broken leg or wing. Broken wings are fairly easy for the chicken to live with; broken legs are not. With legs and wings, it’s important to treat your injured chicken immediately.
A broken wing may drag the ground or appear twisted. It can be healed by folding the wing into a natural position against the bird, and then wrapping the bird with gauze strips or vet wrap to hold the wing in place. Unless it’s a show bird, if the wing heals crooked or droops, it’s no big deal.
Keeping the wing wrapped for two weeks is usually enough. The bird must be separated from other birds during this time. The bird will feel better if it can see and hear the flock.
A broken leg may look crooked and swollen, and the bird won’t walk on it. Broken legs can be splinted, but it’s best to let a vet or someone experienced in bird rehabilitation do this. In a young bird, the bones heal quickly. Once again, you should separate the bird from your flock until it has healed.
In either case, if a bone is protruding through the skin, infection is extremely likely, and the chances of the bird making it are poor. Wings can be amputated, but even though chickens can exist with one leg, the quality of life is poor. Amputations should be done by a vet.
Raising Chickens Glossary
broiler; broiler bird
Any chicken of a breed known or developed for meat; usually with deeper, larger breasts, a larger frame, and fast growth.
Raising Chickens Glossary
brooder
An enclosed area for chicks in the first few weeks of life; provides warmth and safety in the absence of a mother hen.
Raising Chickens Glossary
chiggers
A common external parasite of chickens (and humans) that feed on blood while injecting an irritant into the skin.
Raising Chickens Glossary
Coccidia
An internal parasite of chickens that lines the digestive tract and may cause serious problems.
Raising Chickens Glossary
coccidiosis
An infection by Coccidia.
Raising Chickens Glossary
coccidiostats
A medicine that controls the disease coccidiosis; often added to commercial chicken feed.
Raising Chickens Glossary
cockerel
A young male chicken.
Raising Chickens Glossary
County Extension agent
A county employee, sometimes called an educator, who is associated with a land-grant university in the same state and whose job is to take research-based knowledge and bring it to the general public.
Raising Chickens Glossary
crumbles
Medium-sized pieces of feed, actually broken-up pellets.
Raising Chickens Glossary
egg binding
The condition that occurs when a hen has an egg that she can’t pass from the oviduct for some reason.
Raising Chickens Glossary
fowl tick
An external parasite of chickens, common in the U.S. South, that feed on the chicken’s blood but do not stay attached.
Raising Chickens Glossary
gapeworm
A common internal parasite of free-range or pastured chickens, usually found in the trachea; may cause serious breathing problems.
Raising Chickens Glossary
grit
1. Small rocks or gravel; aids digestion for chickens. 2. Chicken feed supplement, made of crushed limestone and granite, available for purchase in feed stores for chickens requiring extra grit.
Raising Chickens Glossary
hybrid
A cross between two chicken breeds, usually created to take advantage of specific qualities such as increased breast meat.
Raising Chickens Glossary
layer; laying hen
Any chicken of a breed known or developed for laying eggs; will not sit on their own eggs.
Raising Chickens Glossary
lice
A common external parasite of chickens that feeds on feathers or shedding skin cells.
Raising Chickens Glossary
Raising Chickens Glossary
mite
A common external parasite of chickens that burrows into the chicken’s skin and feeds on chicken blood.
Raising Chickens Glossary
oocysts
Immature Coccidia that are passed in fecal matter. Coccidia is an internal parasite of chickens that lines the digestive tract.
Raising Chickens Glossary
parasite
Things that feed on a chicken’s blood, other body secretions, or its feathers; may be internal or external.
Raising Chickens Glossary
pellets
Long, narrow, cylinder-shaped pieces of compressed feed.
Raising Chickens Glossary
pullet
A young female chicken who has not started laying eggs.
Raising Chickens Glossary
roost
1. (noun) Any above-floor structure provided for a bird to perch on. 2. (verb) The act of perching on such a structure.
Raising Chickens Glossary
roundworm
A common internal parasite of chickens, usually found in the intestines but occasionally in the oviduct or even an egg
Raising Chickens Glossary
shelter-and-run unit
A form of chicken housing that combines an indoor, protected area with an outside enclosure.
Raising Chickens Glossary
Raising Chickens Glossary
tapeworm
A common internal parasite of chickens, usually found in the intestines and usually considered harmless.
Raising Chickens Glossary
vent; vent area
The common opening for feces in chickens.
Raising Chickens Glossary
vet wrap
A bandage, often used with animals, that sticks to itself.
Raising Chickens Glossary
zoning variance
A formal agreement with the governing body of an area to allow one individual or entity to deviate from the restrictions of a zoning area.
Raising Chickens Glossary
zoning; zoning area
1. (noun) An area or district with specific restrictions or rules about the types of buildings and activities that can take place there. 2. (adjective) Of or about the restrictions required due to the zoning area.
