bow-legged runt?

[stinkerpants]

Hi Everyone! I'm new here.

We've been having a hard time recently. We are new to chickens, and seem to have been having a lot of bad luck. Two of our hens died. The first one died a few weeks ago from a genetic immune system issue (apparently several from her batch also died around the same time). Yesterday we lost our Rhode Island Red to an intestinal tumor. That's just a bit of a back story.

We got five chicks about three weeks ago. One of the chicks is very small. She always seemed to be sitting a lot whereas the other chicks were running around being active. I'm sure I'm personifying, but she seemed happy and would definitely get up and run around--she just seemed to like to sit. Last night we noticed that her legs look bow-legged. My husband described them as "chicken rickets." This morning I went in to check and it's getting worse.

I am worried that she's probably not going to survive. She's about a third the size of the other chicks and overnight can't even seem to walk.

What would you guys do? Let nature run it's course? Take her to the vet? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

ETA: the chicks are probably 3.5 weeks old now.

 

[Umbral_Necropolitan]

I believe many people use splints to help them, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I hope everything turns out ok for the little guy.

 

[stinkerpants]

Thank you so much!
I found this article:
http://jackshenhouse.com/VSChickHensBroodiesChicks.htm
so I used band-aids and tried to make a splint. Hopefully it works.

Thank you very much! I guess I should have thought to google "splayed legs." In any case, you rock.

 

[foul man]

Thank you so much!

I found this article:
http://jackshenhouse.com/VSChickHensBroodiesChicks.htm

so I used band-aids and tried to make a splint.  Hopefully it works.


Thank you very much!  I guess I should have thought to google "splayed legs."  In any case, you rock.

 

[foul man]

I tried this and they couldn't walk afterwards just kept falling over.it didn't work at all and stressed chick out.

 

[Back onfarming]

I had one chick from my last hatching that was a bit bowlegged and read on here where some suggested using a rubber band to hold their legs together for about 6 hours. What did I have to lose but a rubber band? I found a small one lying around which is rare to find any normally. I put it on 1 foot and twisted it 1 time to make sure it didn't get tripped up and then put it on the other foot. Amazingly in right at 6 hours I removed it since she was walking better and no more bowlegged chick. There is so much useful info on this site and it's helped me being a newbie at hatching.