Sam

If it is a sprain, isolate her somewhere small and quiet with soft bedding and food and water within reach. Plenty improve with rest alone. Visible break or no improvement in a few days and that is us.

Two more causes to have in mind. Frostbite in a hard winter, which shows as discoloured or blackened toes, and nutrition in keets, who grow fast and need high protein. And if several birds start limping at once, or any of them look otherwise ill, ring somebody rather than examining them one at a time.

The one that is not about weather: an open bill when it is neither hot nor just after exertion. Especially with wheezing, gurgling or a rattle, discharge from the nostrils or eyes, a swollen face, tail bobbing on each breath, or a bird standing apart from the others and off its feed.

Waterfowl pick up respiratory infections, including fungal ones that trace back to mouldy bedding or feed. So keep the bedding dry, bin anything damp, store feed properly and get air moving through the shelter.

What would move this from normal to ring somebody: discharge from the nostrils or nares crusting over, bubbly or swollen eyes, rattling or wheezing or an open bill to breathe, and any of them going quiet, fluffed and off food and water.

Several at once showing those together is the pattern to worry about, rather than several at once sneezing after dinner. If you get there, clean the brooder, check the feed for mould, improve the ventilation, separate anybody who is properly unwell, and then call.