Broken wing?

[Pent]

My Ameraucana chicks are starting to show wing feathers, and this has led me to notice something. One has a wing that hangs funny, like the feathers of the wing after the joint are in a completely separate group than the ones before it, while all the others have them tucked up like, well, wings. Also it peeps and cringes, stumbling away, when the others bump into it, but just on that side.
I'm pretty sure I know how it happened; it was mostly my fault. My hubby was holding our son, and I was showing him a chick at what I thought was a safe distance (he's usually very tentative about new things) and the kid just suddenly lunged forward with his hand out, and grabbed a fistful of chick. Matt and I both scrambled to get the hand, I went for the wrist, while Matt got the fingers open, and the chick was on the floor. The fall was only a few inches onto carpet, but baby hands can be merciless. Still, it seemed a little shell shocked, but fine, and I put it back with the others.
So, Its wing was probably damaged by the grab. My question; should I separate it so the other chicks don't keep bumping into it? Or will it be fine with them, as it hasn't had any real problems so far? Is there anything I can do for it, that won't land me with a huge vet bill for a possible rooster? (This is Canada, our vets are nuts pricewise.)

 

[kynewbchickie]

Avian vets here in the States are expensive, too.

Baby grabs happen - and if you're worried about the wing, you could attempt to set it yourself. If you set it yourself with gauze and medical tape (the gauze will protect the feathers), you'd have to separate it from the rest because that will DEFINITELY attract pecking out of curiosity, which will bring you a bigger problem.

Depending upon your flock management technique once they're outside permanently, you could leave it be. Because mine free-range all day from sunup to sundown in an open pasture, I need mine to be able to fly up to safety if something is trying to get at them from the ground - so I'd pay the vet bill, even if it was a roo. Roos are priceless for my flock management, as they'll fight to the death to keep their girls safe if something is attacking them. It all depends on your management technique, coop and run design, etc as to whether you'd need that bird to be fully able to fly. In time, things can heal to where they'll be able to manage around it with no issue.

Good luck with the little guy/gal - as a mom of a toddler, I'm sympathetic to your worries about babies around birds. One day, we found our 2 year old grabbing the guinea keets out of the brooder and putting them on the concrete floor. They were only days old at that point!

 

[Pent]

Thanks, I feel my attempts at splinting it would be more traumatic than helpful for both of us. These are my first chickens, (not ever, I've had them before, but the first in a while), so I don't have a flock to integrate them to, and I'm only keeping a few in a coop and run design. My goal is to have more coop than I really need. But flight won't be important.

I'm in a kind of island of subdivision on a hill surrounded by farmland for miles in every direction, so I've got to be mindful of the neighbors. No roos for me. And I enjoy what sleep I can get, with an 8 month old.

At least I'm not worried about people being bothered by smell; nothing that comes out of a chicken coop is going to match the smell of those farmers fields during the, erm, "fertilization" process. Never mind when the wind changes direction and blows at us from the sheep/cattle farm.

 

[kynewbchickie]

Hahaha! I can completely empathize - I've got cattle on both sides of me, and I had a pig farm nearby when I was younger - that was by far the worst smell I've ever dealt with.

Just keep an eye on it, if it looks worse, make a little separation area in the brooder so they're still able to be in contact with each other, but the injured one is protected. Chickens are pretty hardy creatures - I'm sure it'll heal up fine for what management technique you're using.