2.5 Week Old Button Quail Dislocated Leg

[Clare Mosko]

The chick appears to have dislocated its right leg. Perhaps it started out as a splayed leg and something happened from there. I only took in the bird Wednesday from the owner (who bought the quail chick from my friend, the breeder) in order to prevent it from being euthanized. [see attached image of the chick with its leg sticking out, taken before I came to own the chick] The chick is eating (a turkey starter), drinking and pooping (normally and healthily) and seems generally alert. It is quite active for it's condition hopping on 1 leg quite successfully. I have wrapped the leg with a thin strip of sticky ace bandage to prevent the leg from extending or from the bird putting more weight on it [see image]. However, that doesn't change that the dislocation is at the upper leg joint. The chick behaves nearly normally and does not seem to be in much pain, even with an annoying bandage restricting movement [last image shows it being active on 1 leg]. I take off the bandage at least once a day for a little to ensure the leg is getting plenty of circulation. While the bandage is off I try to hold the chick with its leg in place.

I'm an undergraduate student at UC Davis and happen to know someone at the Vet school. He got a degree in veterinary medicine in Mexico and now is getting a supplemental degree at Davis in epidemiology, so he isn't practicing as much. I'm hoping to have that friend look at the chick on Monday. However he has never set a dislocation on a bird, let alone a chick this small. This vet visit isn't exactly official so we won't have access to everything in a vet office. The breeder friend of mine thinks the leg will need to be set or amputated. Regardless of the procedure, we think the bird will need to grow a little more first.

If anyone has input on chicks with dislocated legs and what you do to treat them, let me know. I've dealt with splayed legs and other more serious conditions, but never a dislocation.

 

[Kiki]

I think you need to "band" the two legs together..some thing like this:

You may want to read this too:

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[Clare Mosko]

I think you need to "band" the two legs together..some thing like this:
View attachment 1115536
You may want to read this too:

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

I've actually already considered that but I do not think that treatment would be best for this case. Since the leg is dislocated, securing it to the other leg would cause the healthy leg to pull on the dislocated one, which may aggravate the injury. I've had lots of success with it for even severe cases of splay leg. And poultrypedia is a great source but unfortunately I don't see anything about dislocations.