Hello,
I recently was given a baby chick that came from the hatchery with a bum leg. She (supposedly buff orpingon pullet acc to hatchery) wants to hold her right leg straight out all the time and while the leg is easily manipulated she doesn't move it much. I work at a vet so we took an xray and it appears that perhaps she has some kind of birth defect causing the ball and socket joint of the hip to be too shallow to correctly house the hip. When one of my drs popped her hip back into place it immediately came right back out of its correct location. Perhaps I am too much of a softie but I want to give her a chance. She is bright, alert, eating and drinking, the other 4 orpingtons seem to watch over her, those 5 out and the 3 older sexlinks out tongiht cleaning their beds where i could watch them all and the orpingtons all kept themselves busy near her where as before i brought her home they played more with the sex links, it was almost as if they were forming a protective base for her. I guess my questions would be, has anyone had any similar experiences to this? Would attempting to treat it like spraddles be worth a try, and last case treatment, if we amputated can chickens do well on one leg? Or would that just be more cruel. I swear I am not normally this easily attached to all animals but something about this one making it this long and seeming to WANT to live I would like to give her that chance. I will post a picture of her laying down and will try to get a picture of her standing tomorrow.
Thank you for any advice/opinions in advance ! I will keep checking here and post progress here for anyone who is curious and/or lent me advice. I also am going to call and talk to the family that gave her to me (they got her out of the hatchery box and her leg was already injured) and let them know what is going on and what my plan of action is gonna be when i get one. I know they formed an attachment to this little girl as well and would like to know how she is doing. Now that i've deemed her a girl she will turn out to be one of those sneaky roosters that get in the all pullet packs
I recently was given a baby chick that came from the hatchery with a bum leg. She (supposedly buff orpingon pullet acc to hatchery) wants to hold her right leg straight out all the time and while the leg is easily manipulated she doesn't move it much. I work at a vet so we took an xray and it appears that perhaps she has some kind of birth defect causing the ball and socket joint of the hip to be too shallow to correctly house the hip. When one of my drs popped her hip back into place it immediately came right back out of its correct location. Perhaps I am too much of a softie but I want to give her a chance. She is bright, alert, eating and drinking, the other 4 orpingtons seem to watch over her, those 5 out and the 3 older sexlinks out tongiht cleaning their beds where i could watch them all and the orpingtons all kept themselves busy near her where as before i brought her home they played more with the sex links, it was almost as if they were forming a protective base for her. I guess my questions would be, has anyone had any similar experiences to this? Would attempting to treat it like spraddles be worth a try, and last case treatment, if we amputated can chickens do well on one leg? Or would that just be more cruel. I swear I am not normally this easily attached to all animals but something about this one making it this long and seeming to WANT to live I would like to give her that chance. I will post a picture of her laying down and will try to get a picture of her standing tomorrow.
Thank you for any advice/opinions in advance ! I will keep checking here and post progress here for anyone who is curious and/or lent me advice. I also am going to call and talk to the family that gave her to me (they got her out of the hatchery box and her leg was already injured) and let them know what is going on and what my plan of action is gonna be when i get one. I know they formed an attachment to this little girl as well and would like to know how she is doing. Now that i've deemed her a girl she will turn out to be one of those sneaky roosters that get in the all pullet packs
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