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Baby chick broken leg
- Thread starter Vhope77
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #62
Vhope77
Songster
I honestly can’t do anything to help him oh my ****ing god I can’t stand this I tried so hard to put in a splint he just fought me the hole time made the bone stick out farther I can’t get it back in the leg I don’t know what to do I just put him back in the brooder after because I was just causing him so much pain for no reason cause I can’t get any type of splint on or the bone back in without him kicking and pushing it back out and farther
It is a very hard fracture to treat with only two hands. 
Please try to find someone to help you.
Please try to find someone to help you.- Thread starter
- #64
Vhope77
Songster
I have no one who wil that’s my problem ! I will have to put him down I can’t stand to see him in pain and there’s no way it’s going to heal
I am, but can't think of anything to suggest other than what you have suggested. Without being able to see it, it seems hard to tell if this can be fixed. It looks like it's very close to the joint, and that would be very hard to realign the bones and splint. Short of getting it to a vet to have the leg amputated, I think the answer may be to cull
- Thread starter
- #66
Vhope77
Songster
So I am on the page of amputation now , since the foot and lower leg have no movement in them at all do they have any feeling ? I will call the vet in the morning to see what they say but I am pretty positive they won’t do it and I will have to
I just had one kind of like this. Poor baby managed to slip its leg between a narrow opening on a hinge on a ramp - 100 babies have probably been raised in that same space and this was the only incident. He stripped all the skin and tissue about 70% of the way around its leg, broke the bone above the hock, and I'm pretty sure something in the joint as well. When I found him he was still stuck and had been throwing his weight around trying to get free for I don't know how long. Now- mine had some movement in the foot still- from what I just read I'm not sure yours does.
First is a good cleanout- I used betadine followed with vetricyn and then bacitracin (or whatever antibiotic cream you've got)
Now- to immobilize baby, find yourself a washcloth or maybe even a tube sock you don't mind cutting a couple holes in. If you can get him on his side- bad leg sticking up - with his head covered (making sure he can breathe) things should get calmer and easier to handle.
I had those "no stick" pads for people- cut them into thin strips to go over the open area - kinda compared one side to the other for deciding how to position the leg. Then used regular gauze to go over the no stick stuff to further pad, then - then some stretched out cotton balls to pad the wound, then thin strips of vetwrap to keep things in place.
To immobilize/brace the leg, on either side of the hock I had those metal nose pieces from a dust mask- you know- those flexible little metal strips to make them fit closer to your nose? ---Wrapped the heck out of those flexible metal strips in vetwrap so there were no sharp edges - and used two of them- one on each side of the hock joint. Make it long enough to intercept the top of the drumstick where it should be stable, and long enough to go to the unbroken long bone in the lower leg. I chose to put it in kind of a regular standing position.
I then put the strips in the position I wanted and wrapped the whole thing in vetwrap.
I tried a chick chair - but mine decided to repeatedly flip itself -- so I ended up putting him in a small box filled with that crinkle paper (like what you find in a fruit basket gift) where he could move a little but the crinkle paper would support his weight.
About a week into this - it seemed like he couldn't get comfortable, so with a good section of that huge gash starting to heal- next I wrapped the leg the same way- left the side pieces off - and wrapped his leg up onto his body using vetwrap- probably because with all the twisting and throwing himself around he'd injured the soft tissues in the joint connecting the thigh and the drumstick though there was no open wound. The best design ended up being cutting a hole for the wings to keep it in place on the body- can't block the poop hole!!!
That did the trick- he started hopping around on his good leg with a lot less discomfort. Given the extremely bloody injury I started with, I would never have flexed the joint to that position to begin with - he was leaking blood everywhere. So it was a process.
The leg did get infected- I think it was a deep seated infection that I couldn't get to - and it finally boiled up and started leaking pus (yummy!!!!!!!) - once that had relieved itself (with multiple flushes at each bandage change) the wound finally closed and now he's able to get around- but I'm going to have to do something to help his good leg out now. He does put his foot down. I did have to do some physical therapy to help restore some movement to the hock and the upper joint.
Fortunately none of the growth plate was affected- his legs kept getting longer in equal proportion. It was (and still is) a process. I don't have many pictures- the night it happened I didn't have help and he was bleeding everywhere, so I wasn't thinking … let's take a picture!
The first "cast" in the temporary chick sling while I located something bigger …
Here's one or two of the middle of the process, before the infection came to the surface. The big scab was open flesh and bone - it wrapped around the front too, but that healed before this was taken The second shot shows how distorted the position of the leg was. It's pretty straight now and it does bend and flex.
First is a good cleanout- I used betadine followed with vetricyn and then bacitracin (or whatever antibiotic cream you've got)
Now- to immobilize baby, find yourself a washcloth or maybe even a tube sock you don't mind cutting a couple holes in. If you can get him on his side- bad leg sticking up - with his head covered (making sure he can breathe) things should get calmer and easier to handle.
I had those "no stick" pads for people- cut them into thin strips to go over the open area - kinda compared one side to the other for deciding how to position the leg. Then used regular gauze to go over the no stick stuff to further pad, then - then some stretched out cotton balls to pad the wound, then thin strips of vetwrap to keep things in place.
To immobilize/brace the leg, on either side of the hock I had those metal nose pieces from a dust mask- you know- those flexible little metal strips to make them fit closer to your nose? ---Wrapped the heck out of those flexible metal strips in vetwrap so there were no sharp edges - and used two of them- one on each side of the hock joint. Make it long enough to intercept the top of the drumstick where it should be stable, and long enough to go to the unbroken long bone in the lower leg. I chose to put it in kind of a regular standing position.
I then put the strips in the position I wanted and wrapped the whole thing in vetwrap.
I tried a chick chair - but mine decided to repeatedly flip itself -- so I ended up putting him in a small box filled with that crinkle paper (like what you find in a fruit basket gift) where he could move a little but the crinkle paper would support his weight.
About a week into this - it seemed like he couldn't get comfortable, so with a good section of that huge gash starting to heal- next I wrapped the leg the same way- left the side pieces off - and wrapped his leg up onto his body using vetwrap- probably because with all the twisting and throwing himself around he'd injured the soft tissues in the joint connecting the thigh and the drumstick though there was no open wound. The best design ended up being cutting a hole for the wings to keep it in place on the body- can't block the poop hole!!!
That did the trick- he started hopping around on his good leg with a lot less discomfort. Given the extremely bloody injury I started with, I would never have flexed the joint to that position to begin with - he was leaking blood everywhere. So it was a process.
The leg did get infected- I think it was a deep seated infection that I couldn't get to - and it finally boiled up and started leaking pus (yummy!!!!!!!) - once that had relieved itself (with multiple flushes at each bandage change) the wound finally closed and now he's able to get around- but I'm going to have to do something to help his good leg out now. He does put his foot down. I did have to do some physical therapy to help restore some movement to the hock and the upper joint.
Fortunately none of the growth plate was affected- his legs kept getting longer in equal proportion. It was (and still is) a process. I don't have many pictures- the night it happened I didn't have help and he was bleeding everywhere, so I wasn't thinking … let's take a picture!
The first "cast" in the temporary chick sling while I located something bigger …
Here's one or two of the middle of the process, before the infection came to the surface. The big scab was open flesh and bone - it wrapped around the front too, but that healed before this was taken The second shot shows how distorted the position of the leg was. It's pretty straight now and it does bend and flex.
I’ve read and caught up. @Vhope77 , I need to ask a serious question.
Are you a 4-H’er, school student or otherwise “a young member” of BYC?
- Thread starter
- #69
Vhope77
Songster
I’m an adult
- Thread starter
- #70
Vhope77
Songster
Did you leave the bone sticking out ???
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