Broken leg?

[OHSpartan]

I have a 5-week old Easter Egger. My daughter stepped on her leg and I think it is broken. You can see the bulge on the bird's left leg in the picture attached. (note....it won't let me attach the photo. not sure why
She shares a 20 sq-ft brooding box with 5 ISA Browns that are much bigger than her, but she does a pretty good job of not getting mauled by them. She is still eating, drinking water, catching bugs that come to the heat lamp.

Question for everyone....what do I do?

 

[fried green eggs]

I had the problem with pictures not working when I first started on this site - I think you have to have X number of post before it will let you attach pics.
I think you should separate the chick with hardware cloth from bigger chicks. You have a few choices: Take it to a vet, Splint leg yourself with popsickle stick, wait n see or cull if, looks too bad. I think you could give it a 1/4 baby asprin for pain. I'm so sorry this has happened - the poor thing and your daughter must feel so bad

 

[OHSpartan]

Yes, my daughter feels terrible. But, it is reinforcing the message that these birds are fragile and you have to be careful. Thanks for the input.

 

[MisttyG]

My husband accidentally broke one of our hens leg last year. She wasn't using that leg very much for obvious reasons so here's what we did. My husband straightened it as much as possible so we could set it. We cut a popsicle stick down to the appropriate size and secured them to her leg with vet wrap. We left it on for about a month or a little longer and when we took it off she was fine! Craft popsicle sticks come in different sizes so you can pick which one would be the best size for your chicken.

 

[OHSpartan]

Thanks Misty. I was hoping not to have to splint the leg, but I think I have no choice.

I tried to separate her from the ISA Browns and oh my, did that stress her out. She cried and cried. After a few mintues, I put one of ISA's in with her. she stopped calling immediately. she missed her family, i guess.

 

[Cackleberry Inn]

Every morning, without fail, I would do a visible check of chickens, and found one of my little girls off by herself, and when checking her out, found that she had broken her leg.
Scooped her up and brought her into the house to asses the damage, and lucky for us it appeared to be a clean break but didn't break the skin.
With my husband's holding her, I did one wrap around the leg with vet wrap, then took two popsicle stick cut short enough to provide stability but wouldn't rub on foot or joint, and did two more rounds with vet wrap, then covered the entire bandage area with athletic tape, left on for 5 weeks, and very slight limb to show for her ordeal.
She did spend the 2 weeks in a cage in the house, eating poached eggs, yogurt, peanuts and whatever I could find to tempt her to eat. As Eleanor started moving better, I put her in a larger pen out in the yard where the rest of the flock were around her the 3rd and 4th week, and then would turn her out with the flock during the day but would have to pen her separately at night because they picked on her mercilessly when they could corner her.
It's now been 10 weeks since the broken leg incident and they are just now, allowing her to roost with them. Not sure if this is a Wyandotte thing or just a typical chicken behavior, but these hens but being a mean girl, to a whole new level.
Happy to say, the girls are now 22 weeks old, and laying eggs, but it was Eleanor that laid the 1st egg. And yes, Eleanor will be with me after she is through laying eggs and welll into her retirement years.

 

[OHSpartan]

Im not very good at splinting chicken legs. Easter's leg healed at an awkward angle. She limps badly, though she can run fast if she needs to. Though at the bottom of the pecking order, the other hens are not mean to her. She is a very good layer, onset laying ~23 weeks and recently laid 13 of 14 days. I consider this remarkable since there is no supplemental light in the coop. All of her eggs are fertile (thanks BO-roo), and I'm looking forward to hatching an EE/BO cross next spring.

Cackleberry, hopefully I don't have to repeat this, but if I do, hopefully I can take as good of care of my bird as you did Elanor.

 

[casportpony]

I have a 5-week old Easter Egger. My daughter stepped on her leg and I think it is broken. You can see the bulge on the bird's left leg in the picture attached. (note....it won't let me attach the photo. not sure why
She shares a 20 sq-ft brooding box with 5 ISA Browns that are much bigger than her, but she does a pretty good job of not getting mauled by them. She is still eating, drinking water, catching bugs that come to the heat lamp.

Question for everyone....what do I do?

I don't know if it's true for chickens, but a vet told me that you need to immobilize the joints above and below the fracture on animals or they won't heal right.

 

[Scottyhorse]

Once a baby chick fell out of the hayloft where the idiot hen layed her eggs. It consiquently broke his leg. You could see it. But, it didn't go through the skin. We had one other chick at the time who we still have no idea where she came from, so we put the other chick in there and the broken leg healed.

 

[Cackleberry Inn]

Wow, impressive egg layer!
Suggestion on being prepared if any other broken leg mishaps, practice doing a splint on someone's finger, stabilizing a knuckle. Really isn't that difficult and it's amazing how still a chicken gets when your treating one.
I have 8 hens, but only getting one egg a day, with Eleanor starting with the first egg shortly before Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, and depending who you talk to, at 21 weeks old they were due but according to my husband, he thinks weather conditions frighten it out of her! LOL
Production will pick up in the next week or so, 1/2 of the flock still haven't "colored up" on their combs and wattles yet,...... nothing close to the red of the hens that are laying.
Michelle