3 legged chick!

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CaliCompound

CaliCompound

Chirping
Dec 4, 2016
16
2
62
Central California
We had a little excitement this morning when we found this critter.

This is the first time I've given a broody girl eggs to sit on. I usually don't give into them, but she was hell bent! When i went to check on the progress of the hatch this morning i pulled out a new fbcm chick with THREE kicking legs and nearly dropped it
700

!

My question is; how common is this and will this chick make it and have a life of "normalcy"? Or is euthanasia the ethical answer here? It is walking fine for now with the 2 dominant legs. Umbilical was a little bloody but a quick dap of cornstarch solved that.

Yikes! Help
 
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I'm usually super careful a about checking for double yokers when I set eggs, but i think this one was an absorbed twin. Found 2 more toes at the base of the 3rd leg! Poor little oddity!

700
 
Hard to say. The internal organs might be OK, but then on the other hand they might not, as they may exhibit this same type of fusing. So for example if there are two partial hearts, the chick may not make it as it gets older. The strain of being bigger, running around etc. could possibly overpower the hear in that instance. But you know it also might be just fine!

Reminds me of gynandromorphy. This is where it's like a male and a female fused together. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26738-split-colour-bird-is-half-male-half-female/ So that is pretty cool, and it sure does look odd, but in that case it works out OK. This of course would be a different scenario but very fascinating!
 
Wow that is something... I'd definitely give it a chance as long as it doesn't seem to be in distress. There's really no reason a chicken can't live with an extra leg. At the same time, don't be surprised if it doesn't make it since there may be internal issues that can't be fixed, but best case scenario, you'll definitely have one unusual addition to your flock.
 

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