baby chick with leg issues

[Officerjeffnpete]

I am very sorry to hear that this chick has a leg problem. I have been raising chickens since March of 2011, and I have raised several chickens with leg problems. I am no vet, but I will share with you some of the photos of my past chickens with disabilities, and perhaps that will help. It is hard to say wether or not your chick will thrive in the future. To me it depends on how comfortable your chick seems. Is it chirping nonstop? Does it appear to be in pain? is it eating on its own?

Here is NEGU, a millie fluer d'uccle. She was given to me for free in a batch of bantams that I purchased at my local TSC. Here was her condition,

I attempted to teach her leg to grow properly using a variety of materials to form a cast, but it was seemingly impossible for me to keep anything on her leg for any length of time before it would fall off. As she grew older her leg grew more stiff, and eventually the opportunity to correct her leg had passed. But NEGU continued her life happily, her appetite never faded, and she did her best to move around in her cage on a shelf in my chicken coop (which allowed her to watch the flock all day). I did give NEGU special care each day during our feeding times together, where I would sit and assist her in eating and drinking, to ensure she was staying healthy.

She lived a good 11 months before she suddenly passed away.




I also had a chick named Ellie, who passed far too soon. I had placed several golden sebright eggs in my homemade incubator, but only one chick had hatched on time. Days had passed until I noticed a new pip, and as the hole in the egg grew, so did my excitement. But after well over twenty four hours, the chick made no more progress. I watched her toes stick out of the hole in her egg, and she seemed stuck. After speaking to members on this wonderful forum, I took it into my own hands and helped this struggling chick hatch.

But this chick was not out of the woods just because she was out of her egg. I soon realized she had a crackling noise when she breathed, her neck seemed too long, and her feet seemed to not work as she wanted them to. After days of feeding her with a piece of thread, constructing sandals for her toes and allowing her to steal my heart, my poor Ellie passed away.



Lastly, let me share the story of Poachy, a black Australorp hen who showed me that no matter how many times you get knocked down, it is always worth getting up again. Poachy was One of my first chickens, she was healthy, until she was eight weeks old and developed crooked toes out of the blue. Despite her toes being crooked, she got around just fine.

At about a year old, Poachy developed a limp. It came out of nowhere, and I examined her foot several times and did several soakings in Epsom salt. Nothing would correct this limp. But she was strong, and she kept up nicely with the others, until one day, months later, on a cold winter morning, when Poachy was found laying on the coop floor nearly dead. She was bleeding from her head and she struggled to keep her eyes open.

I carried her into the house and I watched my hen come incredibly close to death. I was saying goodbye to her one morning as she gasped for every breathe, but a miracle occured and I watched my hen spring back to life over the course of weeks of care. Her wound healed, feathers regrew, she learned to walk again, but she was no longer accepted by the flock. I became her best friend, and she became mine.

In May of 2015, I dropped Poachy accidentally from my arms. She did not soften her fall with her wings and she came crashing down on her leg. Her mobility was taken from her.
I made her a wheelchair, and I fed her and aided to her every need. Until on May 13th, when she slipped away into gods care at the age of 4.

Hopefully sharing my experiences with you will give you some hope (or at least some support to know that you are not alone in this). If I could offer you any advice based on my experience I would say not to use a syringe to feed your chick. If your chick eats and drinks on its own than you don't have to worry, but in the case that you do have to hand feed a chick, syringes are far too dangerous to use. I had Ellie aspirate on me the day before she died because I was using a syringe to let her drink water. I was able to bring her back that night, but I was lucky, and the next day she passed on. After she aspirated, I began to use a thread in the shape of a loop. I would dip the thread in moist feed or water and bring it to her beak where she would grap the thread and eat small morsels at a time. It was a slow process but it worked for her. Just be sure you have a long piece of thread, lol, sometimes the chick will get excited and grab it from you.

Also, it is my opinion that after a certain age the chicks bones become less miable. If you are able to fix her leg, sooner is better than later.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks you! The long necked funny legged chick is exactly like one I just hatched!!! And I was trying to figure out what to do. She got stuck half way through hatching and after 12 hours I peeled her out and she looks just like that!!
I also have a beloved 2 handicapped chickens.
The first gamora, got her head stuck in the "introducing cage" and struggled so hard she degloved her whole wing. After many people saying to cull her I brought her in the house and bandaged her and now she's in the flock with one weird wing she hides under her feathers and she even can jump to the high roost with everyone else!

And then my poor casa blanca.... I don't know what happened. She had a limp that slowly got worse. I had no idea what was going on. I tried everything. Even the vet came out to see her. We pulled out an infected foot feather so my vet said it looks like it infected her joint in the same foot...... So I have her 5 days worth of pen G injections (she was 3 months old.... That was hard...)
And the swelling and heat went down and finally I saw what happened but the damage was done and it was healed that way...
Her leg was dislocated at the knee..... Something I could have fixed if I only knew..... I feel so guilty.... She lays the cutest tiny blue eggs and she is now the momma hen. She lives in the transition brooder and all the young chickens love her... She mothered my guinea hens and if they are out in the yard together they protect her from the rooster it really is the sweetest ever!