Advice please... Splayed leg chick

[Marsticket]

Hi there!
You lovely chicken people are going to be sick of all of my questions this past few days, but I think that I have managed to learn a crazy amount in this past weekends about incubating/raising chicks that I ever thought possible!

So, Saturday morning we had a chick hatch who had a splayed leg, I researched on this forum and managed to splint the legs and chick appear to be ok, just now it keeps toppling over and just flops without using either leg... I am thinking that it is just going to need to be the difficult decision between what quality of life this little fluffball is going to have, or do I keep trying and see whether we can help it...

So, as above, the situation is... Splayed leg, has been splinted but absolutely no balance from chick. Just falling over and I try to prop him up and just falls again... I am hand watering, however it will not attempt to eat due to stress level (?) I have made a donut out of a hand towel and it seemed happy this morning in that.

Does anybody have any ideas of what else I could try, or what could be causing this loss of balance?

Lucky me has a curled toe chick on Saturday also however I cast its leg and it appeared to be balancing and checking out food and water itself, so hopefully I have managed to help this little fluffball.


Thanks a bunch!!!!!

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Hi there!
You lovely chicken people are going to be sick of all of my questions this past few days, but I think that I have managed to learn a crazy amount in this past weekends about incubating/raising chicks that I ever thought possible!

So, Saturday morning we had a chick hatch who had a splayed leg, I researched on this forum and managed to splint the legs and chick appear to be ok, just now it keeps toppling over and just flops without using either leg... I am thinking that it is just going to need to be the difficult decision between what quality of life this little fluffball is going to have, or do I keep trying and see whether we can help it...

So, as above, the situation is... Splayed leg, has been splinted but absolutely no balance from chick. Just falling over and I try to prop him up and just falls again... I am hand watering, however it will not attempt to eat due to stress level (?) I have made a donut out of a hand towel and it seemed happy this morning in that.

Does anybody have any ideas of what else I could try, or what could be causing this loss of balance?

Lucky me has a curled toe chick on Saturday also however I cast its leg and it appeared to be balancing and checking out food and water itself, so hopefully I have managed to help this little fluffball.


Thanks a bunch!!!!!

 

[ChickNanny13]

Are the eggs you are hatching from your flock or purchased?

The curly toed one, possible Riboflavin Deficiency/Vitamin B2 - PolyVisol no iron 2 - 3 drops per day, B Complex 1/2 tablet, or Nutri Drench....Beef liver, boiled egg yolk, spinach, mushrooms, sesame seed, tuna can be given.
You say you 'casted' its' leg, not sure what you're meaning but when a chick of mine had this condition, I just taped (VetWrap) its toes straight, chick sandals.

The one with the splayed leg, you may want to make a sling so that it's suspended with feet touching the ground. That way it won't topple over. Thinking it wouldn't hurt to give it some Nutri Drench too.

 

[Marsticket]

Curly toe seems to be super fine, I have started integrating it into the brooder with the 'healthy' chicks and they tower over him, so supervised play times at the moment...

The splayed leg chick still has no strength in its leg, is drinking from droplets from a syringe with electrolytes and vitamins. It has picked up alot with balance being a little better, but still cannot stand

When you mention a sling, what would you be thinking of?
I currently have it upright in a donut from a teatowel which has certainly helped his stress levels, however it still obviously cannot move, I had a bit of an examination of the leg, and trying to get it to push some weight onto with onto my hand and just nothing at all, it is still splinted to remain under its body but just not able to be upright without support...

 

[ChickNanny13]

In the Search Forum look up Chicken Sling ... It's a piece of material with holes cut out of the chicken's legs. Supports the chicken off the floor or barely toucing. If you make a frame work to suspend it from, you can add a "dish" for feed & water. I can't seem to find the file ... Sorry

 

[Marsticket]

I think I found a picture of what you are referring to, I managed to get hold of a sock and cut out leg, head and poop holes, but while I was cutting I have chicky sitting in the dog bed (no dog in it at the time of course! ) and it managed to support itself to sit upright instead of immediately toppling over, WE HAVE PROGRESS!!!

 

[Marsticket]

The poor little chicky passed away overnight I tried to help it out but unfortunately there must have been something else going on with the poor little dear. Thank you everyone for your advice.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Sorry for you loss