Baby chick not doing well

[MissNibbles]

I have a chick with a screwed up leg. It's bent to the side, and generally useless. She walks on her elbow on that side. The foot is withered.

My bigger problem is, that she is half the size of the other chicks. I do not think she is able to compete for food well. I could cull her, but she's so spunky that I'd hate to do it. Is there any way I can help her gain enough weight to survive in the flock? Or is she really pretty much a lost cause? Can a hen with such a mangled leg do okay once she is bigger?

I would like to save her if it's reasonable, but I have a large flock (500 birds) and if she really has no chance to fend for herself later then I should cull her now.

 

[SteveBaz]

I hate to say this but unless your going to make her a house chicken she will not be able to compete in a flock. They will pick on her relentlessly bc of the handicap. She is not going to make it more than likely. Now I am not saying I could be wrong but just think of having no legs or 1 and no medical help is available for you. JMO others may think differently but I happen to be very clinical.

 

[MissNibbles]

Hmm, you might be right, I have been keeping an eye on her. This round of chicks I ordered 300, and I'd say about 20 of them were malformed in some fashion, the worst few had badly misshaped jaws and died within a month. There are several crippled, I tried to boot as many of them as I could, somehow I missed this one, or she had something happen to screw up her leg, I'm not sure which. She's really scrawny at the moment, but perky, and even tried to peck me when I picked her up, and she moves fast.

They are almost 3 months old, and I figured she wasn't going to make it. But, she is still lingering. I don't want her to die a slow painful death. I'd rather just get it over with or help her survive. She isn't going to become a house chicken though. Hmm, I'm debating if I pull her out for 2 weeks and fatten her up if that will be enough to get her ahead of the game, or if that's foolish and she'll just go back to being scrawny and slowly dieing. They have plenty of food and water out there, and I have seen her eat several times too- it's just clearly more difficult for her then the other chicks. I'm leaning towards fattening her up and seeing if that's enough, but if she starts going downhill I'll just cull her. I don't know, it seems like a shot in the dark. If she wasn't so tenacious I'd probably just cull her now.

 

[SteveBaz]

So sorry but if you have 300 then you know that there is a percentage that are not going to make it and if its just 5% you have 15 that will fail the first round to egg production ,