2 chicks with turned toes

[FloorCandy]

I have 2 chicks with turned in toes, one was only one foot, and one was both. The one with both had a very long difficult hatch, he went long ways around the egg from base to tip and back. This is the 2 leg turn in chick. The one with one leg turned in was more severe, the toes really hard to separate and flatten. This one is a looser example, but both feet are affected.

Anyway, I watched some videos yesterday about correcting this with a little shoe made of cardboard, and I put it on the one with only one leg turned in.

This morning he had gotten it off, but at least he walks on the bottom of his foot and his toes are spread, but still a bit off. When he runs with the group he doesn’t stand out with his hobble like before.

so I just set up the double leg one but he can’t walk or stand with the brace on both legs. He only hatched last night and I guess he just layed there all night and didn’t walk, because his muscles are weaker than if he was using them.

I set him up in a paper cup that holds him upright with his feet flat and I’ve been offering him food and water. I had no supplies to warm him so I got creative, my laptop gets very warm and so does it’s charger. So I nestled his cup between them. And put a thermometer next to it.

It was only a matter of an hour and a half or so and he can stand on his own with the boots on.

he still falls over sometimes and can’t get rolled back over because of the boots so I’ll keep him in his box behind my laptop for the day and see how he does when I remove the boots tonight. I hope he makes it! We call him Gobbles, like Timmy’s turkey on South Park.

I have no experience with this, but he seems to be doing ok. When I lifted the heat plate today I thought he was dead, laying there on his side, barely breathing. I hadn’t even known he was handicapped when I put him in before I went to bed. But now he’s walking and loudly calling the others.

 

[Nabiki]

If they're going to straighten out with help, in my experience, it happens pretty quickly. I've fixed several chicks with curled toes the same way you have. The one chick I had with splay leg didn't make it, though.

 

[FloorCandy]

If they're going to straighten out with help, in my experience, it happens pretty quickly. I've fixed several chicks with curled toes the same way you have. The one chick I had with splay leg didn't make it, though.

He kicked off 1 shoe and it was very much improved, I replaced it and I’ve been holding him in a good position to have them under him flat on my hand. He’s very active now, so I’m hopeful.

 

[FloorCandy]

He’s squinty, and I’ve been trying to let him peck at drops of sugar water on a spoon, dropper, and my finger.

 

[FloorCandy]

 

[Nabiki]

See if you can get it to eat some real food. They have such a high metabolism that plenty of food and warmth are important.

 

[FloorCandy]

He stopped squinting, I removed the boots, his feet look good, he can walk normally from what I can tell, I returned him to the brooder and he’s doing great, eating, drinking, hopping etc. I’ll post some pics of him later on tonight.

I did lose one who had been a bit slow from birth, he was one of the 5 late hatchers along with Gobbles. He just seemed to start struggling all of a sudden and he passed.

However one of the remaining eggs had a live shrink wrapped chick inside, the membrane or whatever was real dry and hard to break. He was also facing with his back to where the pip and breaks were, I think he was hatching, broke a bunch of shell away and his siblings movements rolled him around and he couldn’t find his break again, but the hole being open all night dried it out.

he looks pretty weak so far, I don’t have a lot of hope, this was day 20, he could have been struggling for 2 days. There are 2 other similar eggs, pipped, expanded, dry, but the chicks were dead.

it was a tough call removing the first 15 chicks after 10 hours, they were showing signs of thirst and trying to drink the moisture on newer chicks. Plus they were rolling the unhatched eggs like crazy. Overall I’m pretty happy with 19-20 chicks from 36 eBay eggs that got lost in the mail for 6 days.

 

[FloorCandy]

My last little shrinky dink is actually doing great! He’s moving around, cheeping, even leapt pretty far.

 

[FloorCandy]

Here’s some pics of Gobbles, these are walking action shots!!!

 

[FloorCandy]

The wobblers and shrink wrap chick are all great, 20 good strong chicks this morning, I can’t even identify which was the shrink wrapped one. The wobblers still have a hutch in their steps so I can tell which they are, but they run, jump, and climb, so I think they will live normal lives.