Chick hatched with leg stuck straight up. What to do?

[Andora]

A buff brahma/EE chick hatched last night and its leg seems to be stuck straight up. Something is wrong with the joint. It's red and crusty and angular, though not bloody. The leg doesn't easily bend down, and when I try the poor little chick screams. It also hatched without all the yolk absorbed, but it didn't seem to be bothered. It popped out of the egg quickly and peeping up a storm, and it flung itself (and yolk) all over the bator in a matter of minutes after hatching. It's perfectly fine other than that leg.

The chick scoots around with the "knee" of the leg flat on the ground like it's the foot, and since the leg is stuck straight up it keeps poking itself in the eye with its toes.

All the other chicks are perfectly fine as far as I can tell, so I don't know if it's just a freak mishap or if it's something I did. I had humidity issues on hatch day...it got up to 90% then dropped back down. I still had 10 out of 11 fully developed eggs hatch though!

So what can I do for this leg? Anything? What would you do?

 

[Davaroo]

Oh man, that really bites for the little guy!

I gotta be honest and say that my inclination with chicks like that is to just dispatch them. It's distasteful, I know.
But it's my experience, however limited, that they don't last long in life, anyway. "The Chickens World is a Savage Place," after all.

On the other hand, I'm interested to see what the experts say, especially just what is the physical problem. So I'm watching this one.

 

[Andora]

I'm too tender hearted to cull it.

Since it's fine except for that leg maybe the worse case scenario would be that it's a pet chicken who lives outside of the pen alone and hobbles around our yard and has its own little house with food and water.

My husband will kill me.

Maybe it can live with the lone chick I hatched last round, since that chick firmly believes it is human and will not have anything to do with the rest of the flock...

But seriously if there is some way to fix it, or at least slowly get the leg down so that the poor guy isn't poking himself in the eye, that would be great.

 

[Uppity Peon]

I'm wondering if it might be dislocated or somethng. Maybe you can gently pull it out straight and give it a chance to learn how to walk on it.

If you can't fix it I think it would be cruel to try to keep the poor thing.

 

[woodhill]

I had the exact same thing happen in my first batch of chicks this Spring. One arrived with the leg stuck out exactly the same way. I always thought it was something that happened during shipment. It also had kind of a red bump on the back of its hock/knee, which is what it walked on. We tried to straighten it after reading some of the posts, but it was very firmly bent. It ate, drank, and otherwise seemed perfectly happy, so I decided to keep it (rather than culling).

However, as the chick got older, having only one leg started causing it more and more balance problems as a larger body was being supported by only one leg. When it walked around, it would rub along the box I had it in which eventually started to wear off its feathers and started causing it skin irritation on its sides. It was finally at that point that we decided the most humane thing possible was to put it down. I wish I had a better story to share, but culling it is probably going to be best. It was even harder for me after caring for it for so many weeks and rooting for it to make it.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Same story relived several times, here at TizNotta Farm.
It's what finally got me based my tender heart into a more realistic stance. As I often say, "The Chickens Wlrd is a Savage Place."

There will be a few to announce that their cripple chicken does alright. But diggin to the root of their story will usually unearth the truth - its still not a great life for the bird.

 

[Andora]

I certainly don't want it to suffer forever. I made a brace that holds the leg down, and it can walk better now. I'll give it a few days and see what's happening. Since it's so young maybe the leg will be able to right itself.