Chick With Curled Toes

[PoultryPedia]

There are also additional tips on the Poultry Podiatry page on my website linked in my sig below in the section called "Chick Shoes for Twisted or Curled Toes".

 

[CyndiD]

I used Vet Wrap when Scout first froze his feet. [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] This was how they looked when the Vet Wrap came off. [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] But a week or so later, the damage was so deep to the underlying tissues that his feet curled horribly. [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] So we did Bandaids.....the ultimate insult for a handsome little roo is becoming a duckling! The correction didn't work, but that's because he lost so much when they froze. But it sure didn't stop him - deformed feet and all he was out there doing all the things any chicken does - flying up and down to and from the roosts, scratching in the dirt, running, and even breeding the girls. Gosh, I miss that rascal, but I'm glad that we accepted him curled feet and all. We knew he wasn't in pain so we just let him be.

Oh, my thank you for sharing. I like the vet wrap idea. Sunday the shoes were off my little chick, so i left them of and i re-applied the hobble and brought his legs a tiny bit closer. 2 toes were still curled a little bit so i wrapped each toe individually. but i really like your vet wrap idea. I will do that first thing in the morning. it is 1am and i just saw your post... thanks again for the picture and the help... i really appreciate you

 

[peacefulpuls8]

I know I'm late to this thread by 5 years but my EE (or Ameraucana, not sure which) just started walking funny. She's pretty young still and I didn't notice her walking funny before. Her right toes are curled in and it looks like it throws her balance off sometimes. Have you seen this before and do you know what it is?? Is it too late to repair?

 

[Gnt603]

I actually just hatched a few eggs, and the third little lady that came out had curled toe. Thanks to this page, I quickly pulled her out of the incubator and made her a small boot. She's about 10 hours old and I'll leave it on for the next day or so.

 

[akchickenmomma1]

I have a chick who has been fine up until last night. This morning when I came out to feed and refill water I noticed that her left foot has curled toes, she is about 6 weeks old at this point. I'm not sure what happened, we have 19 chicks the same age that just started to roost from some higher spots in our greenhouse/chicken coop and my thought is that maybe she wasn't as successful at getting up and down as her friends....would this be an appropriate time to try baby aspirin and / or poly visol?

 

[Eggcessive]

It could be a riboflavin (vitamin B2) deficiency. You could try baby vitamins, but I prefer to use poultry vitamins in the water. They are safe for everyone. Are you feeding a balanced fresh chick starter/grower?

 

[LittleChiknLady]

Is this just curled toes or is it something more?

This little chicky hatched out in my incubator early this morning. It was a bit slow coming on day 25. I can tell it has the curled toes, but I'm not certain there isn't something else going on. I made it some little boots but they didn't seem to help.


The right foot is still very curled, the left straightened out after a couple hours with the boot on. However, even with the boots on it was still "walking" on its hock joint. In doing this, it hasn't gotten the balance thing down and keeps falling backwards and is having trouble getting back up. It doesn't seem to have splayed legs like the pictures I've seen either.



It's already getting red marks from the way it hobbles around. So I'm hoping there's something I can do for this little one. It also had a bit of bloody tissue around the navel, but that seems to be drying up just fine.

Let me know if more pictures in different positions are needed. I'd rather not cull this one if I don't have to since it's doing pretty fabulous aside from this.

 

[Eggcessive]

Are you giving the chick vitamins including B2 (riboflavin?) How much space is between the hocks or knees? It might benefit from a hobble for splay leg if it is more than 2 inches between the legs. It also could be leg bone deformity such as varus valgus deformity or perosis. I am not an authority on any of this, but you may want to use vitamins and trace minerals while doing some research. Vitamins and a non-slip flooring, can sometimes help a lot within a few days unless it is a deformity.

 

[PoultryPedia]

I would check to see if it has a Slipped Tendon in the Hock Joint on the right leg or possibly both legs. If so, it needs treatment as soon as possible. So glad you spotted problems early! There is info on treating a Slipped Tendon on the Poultry Podiatry page on the site linked in my sig below.

Also, if it's pasty but isn't cleared up, instead of having to soak it clean as often, you can use little fingernail scissors to trim the fluff off around its vent so poop doesn't stick so easily.

 

[LittleChiknLady]

Well after a night of the boots the toes seem to have uncurled relatively well. I've left them off for a couple hours now and it seems to be getting around better. It still isn't standing up all the way and I couldn't feel any slipped tendon at all. The hock feels normal aside from the leg not extending all the way. I've given it some vitamin water and it ate a small amount of mashed up hard boiled egg, yogurt and chick starter. It doesn't have much interest in eating at the moment, but I figure that's because it's only a day old. What looks like pasty butt in the picture isn't its actually a little bit of bloody navel that it had. It's drying up pretty well. I had a hobble on it and it seemed to make things worse for it. Pretty sure it's some kind of deformity, perhaps because it was such a late hatch or something. I'll keep working with it but I have a feeling its not going to ever walk properly. I think it'll be okay though. Thanks for the replies.