Advice on cornish cross that cannot walk

[arrowti]

Hello all. We have 30 3 week old cornish cross chicks. I'm fairly certain this chick has either a broken leg or even paralysis in the leg as she doesn't seem to be in pain. We had a very humid night where they gulped down all their water, and when we put fresh water in the next morning there was essentially, a stampede. Not long later I noticed this chick unable to move its right leg and using its wings to balance/flop around.

No visible injury to the leg or swelling, but the chick does not seem to have any ability to move it, or the foot (we pulled on it and moved it around and there was no response).

We've separated her into her own area since the other birds were bullying her and forcibly preventing her for eating/drinking. No sign of limping, lameness, or similar symptoms in the other chicks. Lameness has been apparent in this chick for 3 days now.

I believe she may not be salvagable (and I'd rather not make her sad life any worse by letting her lie around for the next couple weeks). Any advice?

They are on poulin chick starter (20%), poulin grain. We raised all our previous batches on it as well.

They are housed in a garage in a separate brooder with 6 (turkey) poults.

 

[Eggcessive]

Leg problems are very common in meat birds. You could try her in a chicken sling with food and water in front of her, if you want to try and get her to put on some more weight to butcher her. Or you could place her in a crate with her own food and water to lie down and see if she gets better. Many are ready to butcher at 6 weeks. But if it seems to be suffering, or you are not going to process her, then I would put her down.

 

[arrowti]

Hello. Unfortunately she passed away this morning. She went downhill quickly, lethargic and stopped eating/drinking last night. This morning she was stiff and unresponsive and passed soon after. The other chicks are all active and healthy and no sign of limping/lameness.

I picked her up and out of random curiosity I cleaned some of the usually grime off her feet and found an infected cut. I'm not sure how she got it since there is nothing sharp in their pen which is covered in thick layers of soft shavings. Only thing I can think of is another chick pecking at her foot when she was laying with it stretched out and making a wound. I didn't check before because I didn't expect in any way that she could have gotten an open injury on her foot.

I suspect she must have gotten a rapid strep (or other bacterial) infection via the wound that spread quickly since she was the only chick sick.