4 week old chick with leg problem

[SimonM]

Hi to everyone,
I'm new to the forum, but have been a regular visitor to the site over the past year.
We have a few bantam chickens and have had a lot of problems with predators and insects killing off our young (mostly dogs, cats, snakes, and ants - the ants are the most difficult to keep out).

This time, we decided to take 2 of the eggs and hatch them in an incubator in the hope of giving them a head start. Only 1 hatched, but she (we assume female) has developed really well inside the house.

We had not noticed any leg problems until just over a week ago when we observed her left leg appeared to be weak and showing signs of splaying. The hip join looks loose but there are no signs of injury (redness, swelling etc)
The chick does not show any signs of discomfort and, although wobbly, does not appear to have slowed down much mobility-wise.

We have tried using a short length of plastic drinking straw and a rubber band to brace the leg. This aided her walking for a while, but, after removing the brace a few days later, she doesn't appear to have improved.

I've given her vitamin supplements in her drinking water and finely crushed eggshell in her food. Her appetite is amazing!

I've attached 2 short videos to show her walking. When she sits and sleeps, she tends to have the effected leg out to the side, which I'm sure does not help her condition. To aid this, I've cupped my hand and supported her body while she slept in my hand, but obviously I cannot do this all the time. When doing this, I've tried to keep her legs together under her body. She seems to like this position and is happy to sleep in my hand.

We are in Thailand and one of the local elders has suggested (Thai traditional method) using the leaf of a certain type of plant to wrap the legs in a similar way to how we treated her for splayed leg. I'm ok to try bracing the leg again, but fear I could be making matters worse if splayed leg is not the issue here.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am desperate to help this little chick.


Thank you in advance.

 

[WVduckchick]

Kinda looks like the hip is displaced. Can you bend the leg manually? Does it move at the hip joint?

Here's what I would try if it were mine. Hold your left hand out, palm up, fingers toward the right, in front of your chest. Lay the chick's belly in your left hand, feet pointing back toward your body, overhanging your pinky finger/palm. Grasp the feet and legs between your right thumb and forefinger. Slowly lower your left hand (kinda bowling ball or lawn-dart starting motion) and let the bird dangle for just a few seconds. Twist your wrist outward, and the bird's reaction should be to lift its head/chest/body upward toward your hand. (keep your hand under, but not touching, and don't drop her! lol) When it does, you can re-grab the body. This will sometimes "reset" a slipped hip or knee joint. It won't hurt the bird, and I would think its worth a try.

 

[SimonM]

Update on my chick: Last night I gave her a good helping of ground almond, eggshell, and a clove of garlic mixed into her regular feed. I also got hold of some vitamin B pills from the pharmacy that included B2 and B6 amongst others and dissolved one of them into about 1.5 litres of water.
After eating and downing almost 10ml of the water, she was quite happy to sit on my knee for a couple of hours while I worked on massaging her leg and foot and getting it back under her body.
At first, it felt like she was holding her leg stiff and the lower leg and foot were rotated outwards, but it relaxed as I worked on it and eventually she was sitting with both feet tucked beneath her as they should be. While in this position, I placed one of my fingers in the base of her foot and began moving the limb back and forth to try and stimulate her to resist me moving it.
After a short break, I repeated the physio for another hour or 2, by which time she had really livened up.
I could feel some movement in her foot and she has motor function in her leg for sure. She was also trying to walk with the affected leg although her walking action was more like rowing a boat; the leg would slide out to the side.

From sitting on my lap to sitting in my hand and trying to walk about, she flew up to perch on my shoulder. She was chirping a lot, not in a pain way, and I could see she was sitting with the affected leg just to her side, but clearly facing the right way and with the foot faced down as it should - no longer rotated outwards.

This morning, her leg was back to the splayed position and feeling stiff, but the splaying did not look as severe as previously.

I will repeat the treatment again this evening and monitor her progress, but she certainly seems to have responded well to the vitamins.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We've been giving her vitamin B10 and B12 in her water and crushed almond and crushed eggshells in her regular feed.

Just adorable!
What does the hock/knee feel like? Compare it to the other leg.

I want to lean toward this being slipped tendon, but could be wrong.
@casportpony @WVduckchick what do you ladies think?

Can you find B-Complex vitamins that has B2 (Riboflavin)? Riboflavin is used for leg health. A little crushed egg shell can give calcium, but if she is eating a balanced poultry feed, then that should supply all the calcium a growing chick needs. At 4 weeks she does not need excess calcium.

Instructions for treating slipped tendon along with making a chick chair for her are in the following link. Slipped tendon is very hard to fix from what I understand.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/peachick-with-slipped-tendon.1092979/

 

[SimonM]

Just to add some more info. now she is settled on my lap she is ok for me to feel around her leg.
Her foot feels limp and cool. I cannot feel her try to move the toes when I put my finger in the base pf her foot.
Lower leg feels ok; I cannot feel and sliding in the tendon.
Upper leg too feels ok but looks twisted to the side, which makes her lower leg and foot point in the wrong direction for normal walking (a bit like rotating your wrist outwards).
When I try to feel around the very top part of her leg, she doesn't like it - as though it is tender to the touch.

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

Thank you so much for the reply,
I've used a short strip of bandage and bound the legs as per your picture. This is similar to how I'd braced them with the straw, except I had the brace above the knee joint.

I'll get more vitamins in the morning as the one I'm using is mainly vitamin B, which I had read was best for leg problems.

How long should I leave the bandage on?

I recommend to continuing the use of the straw and bandage. I have had 5 splay legged chicks at one time and we tried out the vetwrap method. It was ineffective. The drinking straw works so much better!

 

[Saaniya]

My chicks condition appears to be worsening and it's painful to watch. My wife and I bandaged the legs as per the photo (we originally used regular bandage and tape, but then replaced it with vetwrap. We've been giving her vitamin B10 and B12 in her water and crushed almond and crushed eggshells in her regular feed.

She's eating and drinking (and pooping) as though there is nothing wrong with her; a very healthy appetite. But her affected leg looks weaker and she no longer opens up the foot to stand; it claws and buckles beneath her.

For now, I'm keeping her supported on warm cloth to keep the pressure off her leg, and have her food and water in front of her so she can eat and drink as she needs.

I was thinking of trying to assist her in walking by holding her weight on the affected leg as a means of physio. Otherwise, she seems happy to try and fly up to sit on my knee.

Is it normal to see the leg weaken and the chick stand on her ankle when strapped up this way? She is quite a good size chick now and she seems to struggle to hold her own weight when walking.

She still moves her affected leg, but she tends to keep it straight and it looks very flimsy as though the muscles are wasting away.

I am open to any suggestions. The Thai vets are zero help; either they don't treat birds period, or see it as odd that anyone would show such concern. Of all the vets we spoke to yesterday, only 1 was prepared to discuss the problem, and he said it's just inbreeding, nothing you can do........ so we are on our own with this one.

Maybe the chick.have deformation of leg I'm tagging.more.knowledgeable users don't worry


@Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive
@casportpony

 

[Eggcessive]

Does your vitamin have riboflavin (vitamin B2) on the label? I would give her riboflavin (just a small amount) and see if it improves. How old is the chick now? There could be an injury in the hip or a deformity, but Mareks disease could be a possibility. It usually does not occur often before the age of 5 weeks, but it has been reported as early as 3 weeks. More commonly it occurs in chickens between 2-5 months old. I am not sure that splinting will help, especially since we aren’t sure of the problem. Does she curl the toes under on her left foot? Here is an article on riboflavin deficiency and another on Mareks:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/217/vitamin-b2-deficiency/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

 

[SimonM]

Today, we have removed the vetwrap and let her have a run about. She is trying to stand on the affected leg, but clearly this is not taking her wight and sounds like it is causing her pain.
I've had a feel of her legs. The tendon feels like it is straight up the back of the leg and I cannot feel any movement there either.
But to me, the hip looks like it is protruding when compared to the right leg.

We have tried the method suggested by WVduckchick, but I just realized we did not do the outward twisting of the wrist step (I'll try again later).

She does seem move lively today than yesterday and is still eating and flying about. I hope it is the vitamin deficiency and it can be reversed.

Apologies for the poor quality of my video, the cameras autofocus is faulty, you can hear it clicking.

 

[WVduckchick]

So sorry it’s not looking good. Some leg issues can be fixed and some cannot. It appears that you are doing everything you can, I’m at a loss of what else to try. I’ve had to put down a few chicks with leg problems.

I’m curious about the incubation. Did this chick hatch on time with no issues? Correct position in the egg, etc? Maybe humidity high?
Not accusing you of doing anything incorrectly, I am just always curious why these things happen and wonder if there may have been an issue while still inside the egg.