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Spraddle Leg

post #1 of 5
Thread Starter 

We got our order of 24 chicks (the brown egg layer assortment) this morning, and to our delight we had 25 health chicks in the box, and one with spraddle leg.  The leg splays out behind the chick.  I read up on it and and made a "bandaid splint" but no matter how I do it I can't quite get the leg line up so that the legs are perfectly parallel.  The spraddle one twists slightly outward.  The chick can now sit upright and is eating and drinking, but it seems to rest "perched" on the good leg.  Should I go back and tape a divider/brace into place to hold the leg straight?  It looks better but the chick gets knocked over by its less restrained hatch-mates.  If I hold up the chick it looks perfectly aligned, it's when it goes to put weight that the outward twist develops.

http://www.voiceofthehive.com - Stories of beekeeping, honeybees and the beekeepers who love them.

http://www.chickendreams.com - In pursuit of the egg

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http://www.voiceofthehive.com - Stories of beekeeping, honeybees and the beekeepers who love them.

http://www.chickendreams.com - In pursuit of the egg

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post #2 of 5

Best bet is to have someone put it out of it's misery. I love my babies and it is hard but trust me, you will thank them later. I allowed my chick to grow for 3 months and she was miserable and so was I. My chick did die but it was a long painful time till she did. It wasn't fair to me or to her.

   I went from a few chickens for eggs to 30 standard and 10 banty chickens! Throw in a couple of wiener dogs( who love to roundup the birds!) and a Golden Retriever (who won't retrieve!) and lucky for me I have a very tolerant Husband and son! Semper Fi, oorah!!

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   I went from a few chickens for eggs to 30 standard and 10 banty chickens! Throw in a couple of wiener dogs( who love to roundup the birds!) and a Golden Retriever (who won't retrieve!) and lucky for me I have a very tolerant Husband and son! Semper Fi, oorah!!

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post #3 of 5

 If it were me I would give it a try and keep the bandaid on it. Change it out every few days. The joints are not fused yet and you might have a chance to correct it.

 

 If not, as the above poster said, you might have to deal with problems down the road, so be prepared...  Good luck to you.  

No matter how much we push the envelope it is still stationary......
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No matter how much we push the envelope it is still stationary......
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post #4 of 5
Thread Starter 

For what it is worth, the splint seemed to do the trick...sort of.  See, I realized later that BOTH legs are rotated outward about 45 degrees, which is why no matter what I did they didn't look right. The sound she made when I gently "corrected" this made it clear that I wasn't going to try that again, so I kept a bandage splint on to keep the leg from splaying out too wide and let her walk.  Sleeping (or picked up and just legs hanging) Spraddle (what else would we name her?) has her legs twisted outward.  It doesn't seem to slow her down now that she's older.  If I didn't look for it. I wouldn't even spot it (it's hard to see when she walks and hard to miss if she's asleep with her legs both outward.  We're going to keep her around - she runs and flaps and hops at the others just fine and doesn't seem to be in any pain, so she's just a little different.  That I can live with.  Who knows?  Maybe she'll lay me breakfast one of these days, or make me dinner one evening.  I'm hoping for breakfast, but dinner's a fine meal too.

 

Thanks for the advice.

http://www.voiceofthehive.com - Stories of beekeeping, honeybees and the beekeepers who love them.

http://www.chickendreams.com - In pursuit of the egg

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http://www.voiceofthehive.com - Stories of beekeeping, honeybees and the beekeepers who love them.

http://www.chickendreams.com - In pursuit of the egg

Reply
post #5 of 5

smile.png I'm glad the chick is doing okay. I didn't mean to sound harsh but I did want you to keep in mind that difficult decisions may have to be made. Keep us posted on the progress.

   I went from a few chickens for eggs to 30 standard and 10 banty chickens! Throw in a couple of wiener dogs( who love to roundup the birds!) and a Golden Retriever (who won't retrieve!) and lucky for me I have a very tolerant Husband and son! Semper Fi, oorah!!

Reply

   I went from a few chickens for eggs to 30 standard and 10 banty chickens! Throw in a couple of wiener dogs( who love to roundup the birds!) and a Golden Retriever (who won't retrieve!) and lucky for me I have a very tolerant Husband and son! Semper Fi, oorah!!

Reply
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