Chick with hurt foot

[felicia56]

Hi, I just received a chick that won't put any weight on its right foot. I thought it might be the slipped achilles, but when I looked closer I could see that the top joint of the toes is a bit swollen. The quality of these photos is terrible. The one on top was taken behind her, showing how she holds the foot up. The bottom one shoes the swelling and how she holds her toes on that foot. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Eggcessive]

Have you inspected the whole leg for a possible break? A broken leg or bad sprain would be my guess. How old is she, brand new? She didn't have a leg band on or anything did she? Look at this link on pp 20-22 for advice on splinting a leg: http://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf

 

[felicia56]

She's brand new. We got her 4 days ago and I noticed it as soon as I put her in the brooder. Thanks so much for the info; I'll try it and let you know.

 

[airybee]

We found one of our 5 day old chicks injured in her brooder a few weeks ago. She wouldn't put any weight on her right leg and all we could see as far as injury was a swollen joint. She wouldn't walk at all and we didn't have much hope for her. I did some research on treating baby chicks for injuries and had a lot of success with giving her tiny bits of baby aspirin (the equivalent of 1/8th-1/16th) of a baby aspirin to help her pain and swelling. This allowed her to get around enough to drink and eat on her own when she needed to. We broke up the aspirin chunk and mixed it in with ground meal worms (chicks love) so she would eat it and we didn't have to force it down her. We gave her the aspirin every four hours for 2 days and then began to wean her off, moving the doses from 4 to 6 to 8 hours. All the while we had her secluded from the rest of the chicks but within sight and ear shot. At night we put the calmest and most gentle chick in the flock to keep her company. You could try occasional Epsom salt soaks in warm water but we found our chick to get too stressed out, it wasn't worth it but it helps with swelling and increases circulation to promote healing. After a week, our chick wasn't 100 percent but we felt she was well enough to join the flock and and now that they are almost four weeks old, her limp is finally gone and she is quite dominant in the group. If you don't start seeing improvement, even small, within a couple days of treatment, its probably something more serious. Good luck with your chick!