Chick had umbilical cord around its foot....having some walking issues.

[KLAM]

We had 18 chicks hatch this week and on day 2 we noticed one of them limping funny. Looked at its feet and noticed that a dried piece of umbilical cord was wrapped around its left foot which was drawing the foot up toward the abdomen. So it was mostly hopping around on its right foot. I snipped the cord (which was completely dried) in order to free the foot. It has been a day now and it is using the left foot more but still tends to put more weight on the right foot. Do y'all think this will self correct or should I make a contraption similar to what is used for splay foot (like on this video

) to encourage using both feet equally? Thanks for any help.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How is your chick doing?

 

[KLAM]

It is doing better with that leg. Still leans a little more on the good leg but seems to be improving. The only other odd thing I noticed, (unrelated to the leg) is that when it drinks water, it dips it’s beak in the water and then squats really low when it swallows whereas all the other chicks stand up and stretch their necks to swallow. Seems weird. I hope it’s not a problem.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm glad she is doing better. Chicks sometime drink oddly, only time will tell if the squatting while drinking is a problem or not.