Bulge between chick's legs

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a question and I feel silly but I can't figure out how to post a question so I do apologize for hijacking this thread but I am in need of serious help. I have a chick who is 3 days old a lady gave it to me to try to help and he has 2 slipped tendons. Both legs and it is awful because he just flaps around and hobbles.I know I need to wrap it but when I tried I couldn't get the tendon to stay in place. I could not be doing it right. I don't know how to and I am so scared I will not be able to help him and he will not make it.

Hi @warrior momma Welcome To BYC

You can go to the top of this page and click on "start a new thread" that will take you to a page where you make your title and post. When you do make your thread if you can include some photos of your chick and his legs that would be good. In the meantime here some helpful information about leg treatments: https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[centralcaligirl]

 A lot of vets don't treat chickens, so I'm glad that you were able to form a relationship with this one and have someone that will monitor her.

I find your situation interesting, so if you can keep the thread updated periodically with new photos and if you see any changes that would be most helpful.  I don't believe I have encountered a chicken with a hernia before, so I would like to see how she gets along. 

I do wish you well.  I bet your daughter is happy her chick doesn't have to go through surgery right now.

Yes I will, thank you for your interest in her. She is going back to the vet on Thursday next week for a few hours for observation when the other vet is also there. They said they have seen hernias in older hens before but never a pullet.

This evening she was out in the yard for a while and she seemed just fine, so hopefully she will continue to feel well. I'll update the thread as I know more and I'll take some pictures the next time we have a sunny day.

 

[centralcaligirl]

The vet took X-rays today and it's kind of hard to tell because little Peep was fidgeting and not totally cooperative lol, but it seems as if what happened was that there was a tear in the abdominal wall fairly early on and the gizzard fell through and then continued to grow outside of the hole, so the gizzard is now much larger than the hole it came through. The vet said she would consult with some other veterinarians who work with poultry to get some opinions on how to proceed. She said it's possible that the chicken will be fine as she is if the tear is stable and the gizzard will just remain where it is. The other option is to at some point try to surgically return the gizzard to its proper place by opening the hole, putting the gizzard back in, and then stitching it closed.

Interestingly, the little girl seems oblivious to the problem and is by far the most active of the three pullets we have. The vet said that she palpitated her abdomen and the chick didn't seem at all distressed or in pain. So we brought her home and put her back with the others for now.

We will be waiting until next week to see what the other vets have to say.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The vet took X-rays today and it's kind of hard to tell because little Peep was fidgeting and not totally cooperative lol, but it seems as if what happened was that there was a tear in the abdominal wall fairly early on and the gizzard fell through and then continued to grow outside of the hole, so the gizzard is now much larger than the hole it came through. The vet said she would consult with some other veterinarians who work with poultry to get some opinions on how to proceed. She said it's possible that the chicken will be fine as she is if the tear is stable and the gizzard will just remain where it is. The other option is to at some point try to surgically return the gizzard to its proper place by opening the hole, putting the gizzard back in, and then stitching it closed.

Interestingly, the little girl seems oblivious to the problem and is by far the most active of the three pullets we have. The vet said that she palpitated her abdomen and the chick didn't seem at all distressed or in pain. So we brought her home and put her back with the others for now.

We will be waiting until next week to see what the other vets have to say.

Thank you for the update. I'm glad that to hear that she is still doing well and that the hernia doesn't seem to be an issue at the moment.

 

[Eggcessive]

I am so glad that you all gave her a chance to get along without surgery or putting her down. Hopefully she will live a good normal life with your family.

 

[centralcaligirl]

Thank you. Here is a picture of her this morning. As long as she's not in pain and can have a good quality of life i'm inclined to just let her be. Fortunately I have another Australorp of the same age so I can compare their behavior as time goes on.

 

[centralcaligirl]

The two Austrolorps together. She is the one above next to the BO pullet.

 

[centralcaligirl]

Just a quick update. She is 10 weeks old and is still doing really well. As she grows the hernia is becoming less apparent as it's covered by feathers and fat. We are hoping that she will continue to be okay. I spend a lot of time each morning walking behind her and waiting for her to poop to make sure it still looks normal, which so far it still does

 

[BantyChooks]

Good news!

 

[centralcaligirl]

A few of you may remember a while back that I posted about our Austrolorp chick that had a hernia. I just thought I would post a little update...she is 25 weeks old now, and has never laid an egg, but she is still doing great. Hopefully she will continue to do well and stay the happy girl she has been all along.

I'm trying to decide whether I should take her back to the vet or not...on one hand, she is doing fine, but on the other hand the vet thought it was possible that she would start laying internally at some point. Since the others have all started laying, I'm kind of wondering what's going on in there, but then I don't want to unnecessarily stress her out either. What do you all think?

Here's a current picture too!