3-week old chick with a bad leg - any advice please

[ChicoryBlue]

Thanks. I will switch out feed in the morning and add vitamins to the water.
I confess I get stressed because she is so tiny and delicate (though of course huge compared to even a few days ago!).

She is tiny, but a tough little athlete, an ambitious one at that. She over-did it somewhere, landed wrong maybe. It doesn't look like a horrible problem yet, if it's just a sprain chicks have a lot of resilience in that department as long as she's eating, drinking and pooping. See how she is in the morning. The sling could be a good temporary remedy and relief for her if it doesn't improve or looks worse as you observe her through the day tomorrow. Hang in there!

 

[BY Bob]

I would suggest rotating the leg while feeling the hip joint to make certain that it is not dislocated. This is not easy to do alone so you might need help. If it's not dislocated then I would not put her in a sling. I would let her walk on it. This has happened twice to Lilly and both times it was not dislocated and she was able to work through it on her own. I fear the stress of the sling could be worse than the injury.

It also could not hurt to supplement with vitamins if you would like. To me, it looks like an injury but I've not seen a lot of chicks with injuries like this.

 

[RoyalChick]

She is not noticeably better this morning and she remains perky, eating and drinking etc. Vitamins (B complex and K) have been found and will be added to water shortly. The vet has viewed the videos I sent and will see her. So my next issue is catching her without doing more damage and of course getting them all in a box together for the trip which will not be easy as their vertical take-off abilities are quite impressive.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Let us so know what you vet sees.

 

[RoyalChick]

Let us so know what you vet sees.

Nothing is dislocated. She is able to weight-bear but her toes curl under so she is walking on the tops of her toes which are getting sore. Toes and hock joints looking a bit swollen. No sign of a wound to explain infection.
Thinking either a sprain (maybe someone jumped on her or maybe she landed badly) or riboflavin (B2) deficiency.
Plan of action is vitamin supplements in water and I am also going to give them scrambled egg in a minute. The vet also put a bootee on her - that is partly to straighten her toes but more to protect the tops of her toes from abrasion. Other than that wait and hope she recovers.
Vet said I could try a sling but that it might not be great if it freaks her out so I am holding off on that today as the whole vet visit was pretty traumatic.
She definitely has a will to live - she eats, drinks and poops with gusto - but it is a heartbreaking sight to see her flailing around.

 

[Marie2020]

Bernadette turned 3 weeks old today. She was OK until this afternoon when she started limping. She is otherwise fine - energetic, eating, pooping etc. But as you can see from these two videos she has something wrong with her leg. I am thinking she sprained something. There are three chicks the same age and they all freak out and go crazy when I reach in to top up feed etc. so I am thinking someone landed on her leg or something like that.
I would welcome any advice on what to do.

Tina has an awful limp I think she hurt her leg and foot jumping off a perch.

I cleaned up her legs by soaking them in warm water epson salt and vinegar too take the swelling down as well as too clean incase of any cuts I couldn't see.
I then made a mash of mixed foods they could all eat adding a little of both ginger & turmeric powder (both are anti inflammatory).

I was really worried because it had continued for about a week. But within days of what I wrote above she was improving then finally the limp had completely gone

@ByBob said, these things happen and as always he was correct. She's a little sprinter once again, especially when food and treats are about

 

[pennyJo1960]

The boot is just to get the toes going the right way.

 

[Perris]

Nothing is dislocated. She is able to weight-bear but her toes curl under so she is walking on the tops of her toes which are getting sore. Toes and hock joints looking a bit swollen. No sign of a wound to explain infection.
Thinking either a sprain (maybe someone jumped on her or maybe she landed badly) or riboflavin (B2) deficiency.
Plan of action is vitamin supplements in water and I am also going to give them scrambled egg in a minute. The vet also put a bootee on her - that is partly to straighten her toes but more to protect the tops of her toes from abrasion. Other than that wait and hope she recovers.
Vet said I could try a sling but that it might not be great if it freaks her out so I am holding off on that today as the whole vet visit was pretty traumatic.
She definitely has a will to live - she eats, drinks and poops with gusto - but it is a heartbreaking sight to see her flailing around.

good luck with it. Fingers crossed here for her, and you!

 

[Kris5902]

I think this is really good news. I’m also impressed your vet was able to bootie wrap the tiny toes… wrapping adult chicken feet is a PITA sometimes and with tiny ones even more so. You have to be quite careful not to over tighten or misalign anything. Would love to see the bootie when everything has settled back down. Expect her to take a while to adjust to the wrap, standing and moving about, and just give her time to heal. The bootie is going to disrupt her balance a bit in the short term but if she can get back to using it normally it’s worth it.

Trouble is walking/limping around a bit better today here and we are what? two weeks into her rehab… I’m glad your wee one is still bopping around that’s much better than just sitting and moping about which has been Trouble’s coping method.

 

[RoyalChick]

The boot is just to get the toes going the right way.

The boot is mainly to protect the toes so she doesn't scrape them when she walks on the top of them - but it also serves to hold them straight.