newchickychick
Songster
Hello all! We're not sure how it happened, but today we got up to our little Splash 2 week old Silkie chick limping. There is no OBVIOUS sign of injury. I tenderly felt both legs and they feel similar, yet its right leg is just limp when the chick is lifted up. It doesn't seem to want to put any weight on it. This had to have happened overnight. It is eating and drinking and pooping just fine, and likes to be around the other chicks, so there are no behavioral changes at all. It'll hold the leg limp when I pick it up but is able to stand up to limp on it to move around. I'm not sure what steps I should first take to narrow anything down.
There are definitely no open wounds. The leg itself feels like any other silkie chick's right leg, so I'm really puzzled. I could just be missing something as I am unfortunately a novice to the world of chick anatomy though. :[
What should be our first steps to try to diagnose the issue? We want to be sure this sweetie gets all quality care we possibly can. It was literally overnight, so I'm wondering if it was an injury, but there's nothing outside of their feeder for them to get 'stuck' in. So I am a little concerned it could have stood on the feeder and toppled off with its leg under one of the little 'rungs', but we've never had this happen to a chick before so I'd never considered it before.
The leg itself is not rotated in any odd position. It just seems to not bare weight well. It didn't seem to object specifically to me messing with its leg. It just wasn't a fan overall of the big sky hands holding it period, but did not cheep frantically as I tried to maneuver the leg (VERY gently!) to make sure there was nothing funky I could notice outright. The toes as well are not curled at all - they're straightened out quite normally. I did give it a drop of poultry cell just in case there was a vitamin issue ongoing. They're SOLELY on chick crumbles, 24% unmedicated (as I'd read medicated can mess with vitamin absorption). We'd swapped from medicated to unmedicated when we'd tried to assist a chick with wry neck.
Any and all help is much appreciated!
Last edited:
It’s still able and willing to limp around to get food and water, but I’m worried I don’t know how to help improve the situation.
I don’t notice it being any worse than yesterday at least but not any better either. 
I’ll give another dose of vitamins today in hopes of it helping. Though with it seeming a little sensitive to put weight on, I’m not sure if it’s really a deficiency I’m treating or not, argh.
