this chick hatched a day late and has curled toes. I've read that it can be corrected by making a "sandal" out of a tape or bandaid and pipe cleaners. does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to correct this? Here are a couple pics of the poor little guy
well I went ahead and made my own version of a "sandal". I figured it would be better than nothing, at least until somebody has a better suggestion lol. I used some cardboard and medical tape. he is walking with them, just walks a little funny and stumbles once and a while but appears to be doing well in them. let me know what you think
i'm posting an update for anyone who may run into this problem that would gain from my experience. well, my sandal didn't work out. his feet kept slipping out of them
so I ended up just positioning his feet correctly on the pad of a band aid and wrapping his feet with 2 band aid. here is a pic to show how his feet are doing after being wrapped for just 2 days (I changed the band aids each day).
as you can see his feet are 100% better and he's walking (and running
Thank you for the updated photos on this issue. A broody deserted her last egg, and it hatched with this issue. It's in our incubator with shoes on - the cardboard ones with the medical tape.....I think I'll switch to two band-aids in the morning. Little chick is tuckered out from the hatching process.
Poly-vi-sol (no iron) is also great to help these little ones get off to a stronger start. Just a drop a day will do the trick. Up the dose a drop a week (so two week old gets two drops, three weeks, three drops, etc.).
How long did you have to keep the little sandals on? I have a chick with the same issue, we put the sandals on, just not sure if we should change them and put new ones on or just keep them completely on and how long? Please i really need to know, any info would be helpful.
Congratulations on the progress! You have to be very proactive and splint as soon as you can, otherwise it won't work. I got a week old chick with curled toes on one foot and was unable to help her. She's about four months now and it doesn't hinder her in any way- she can perch and scratch fine- but I still wish I would have been able to fix it. The sooner you splint the better.