6 week old silkie mishaped legs please help!

[sabrinaTmartens]

Hi everyone,

I need some advice/ help with one of my 6 week old silkies.
6 weeks ago it came out of the incubator and had one spradle leg. We braced it but for some reason it always kind of kept bending to the left. She ended up being handicapped but was able to move forward using her other leg and wings.

Now for the past few days the leg has moved even further to the outside bending her entire knee inwards. I can very carefully move her leg back in the correct way, but it doesn't stay like that ofcourse. She isn't able to move use other leg anymore because it moves too much forward for her to stand on properly.

I have to hold her so she can eat and drink and the other chickens are ofcourse pecking at her. I feel like i should go to the vet to put her down, because if she can't walk she doesn't have any quality of life. But she is healthy for the rest, i keep wondering is there is some way i can make her atleast keep her balance better or use one of her legs...

Is there anyone who can give me some advice? Plaster it in the correct way maybe?

Please help me!

 

[Eggcessive]

A picture of the chick may help. It's possible that your chick is suffering from a leg deformity. These can get worse as the chick ages, when they affect the tendons in the legs. This could be a varus-valgus deformity, which in the past has been called a slipped tendon or perosis. There are many different ones, and unfortunately not a lot can be done. Some people have successfully treated a slipped tendon in a one day old, but it doesn't happen very often, and less often with older chicks. I would use some poultry vitamins with minerals--some links are below. There are many different deformities, so here is a link that show some of them, but you will need to click on each page in the link to enlarge the pictures:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1790586/
https://aaap.memberclicks.net/assets/musculoskeletal preview.pdf

Here are some good vitamin/mineral supplements:
http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=01b93263-21a4-4f4a-ba84-8433ac093628
http://www.strombergschickens.com/product/vionate-2-pounds/Poultry-Vitamins-Supplements
http://www.provitalhealth.com/pro-vital-poultry-econo-vital-poultry-vitamins-minerals-probiotics/
http://www.strombergschickens.com/product/avia-charge-1-pound/Poultry-Vitamins-Supplements

 

[sabrinaTmartens]

A photo might be kind of hard to see because she is black, but on the first link there is a picture which looks very similair:

Because that leg is now twisted and moved to her left side she has trouble using her other leg as well. I think i might try to cast it a little bit, so that her left leg is back and kept in the right position under her as it should be, since i can easily move it back in the correct way without hurting her. What do you think? Might not help because she is already six weeks but atleast it can give it a last shot.

She still drinks and eats if i help her, so she isn't feeling too bad atleast

 

[DylansMom]

A photo might be kind of hard to see because she is black, but on the first link there is a picture which looks very similair:

Because that leg is now twisted and moved to her left side she has trouble using her other leg as well. I think i might try to cast it a little bit, so that her left leg is back and kept in the right position under her as it should be, since i can easily move it back in the correct way without hurting her. What do you think? Might not help because she is already six weeks but atleast it can give it a last shot.

She still drinks and eats if i help her, so she isn't feeling too bad atleast

Start searching "Twisted Tibia" that is the usual cause when 1 leg rotates outward.


If it is not too far gone, taping overnight can correct it, but 6 weeks is getting old. If it is too far gone, nothing will help. The one above was caught early, taped 12 hours overnight for 4 weeks, and made a complete recovery.

 

[Eggcessive]

A photo might be kind of hard to see because she is black, but on the first link there is a picture which looks very similair:

Because that leg is now twisted and moved to her left side she has trouble using her other leg as well. I think i might try to cast it a little bit, so that her left leg is back and kept in the right position under her as it should be, since i can easily move it back in the correct way without hurting her. What do you think? Might not help because she is already six weeks but atleast it can give it a last shot.

She still drinks and eats if i help her, so she isn't feeling too bad atleast

I think many people would give it a shot to try and help her. A lot of people call this a slipped tendon because the gastrocnemius tendon can swell and rupture causing lameness. Many times they can't get to food and water at some point. It's ice to see that some have good luck treating this, but it is unusual. Good luck, and keep us posted about her.

 

[DylansMom]

I think many people would give it a shot to try and help her. A lot of people call this a slipped tendon because the gastrocnemius tendon can swell and rupture causing lameness. Many times they can't get to food and water at some point. It's ice to see that some have good luck treating this, but it is unusual. Good luck, and keep us posted about her.

Yes, you should check and see if the tendon is still in the correct position, sitting in the groove on the back of the hock. My chick's tendons were still in place so I knew it was twisted tibia and not slipped tendon. If the tendon had been out on mine I doubt they could have recovered, I had 5 of them like this last year( all recovered with the taping), I overfed and the excess weight caused the problems, this year we had none. Both slipped tendon and TT can appear the same, but if the tendon is out, I doubt you'll be able to fix it at 6 weeks old.