CHICK - NOT WALKING - HELP PLEASE!

BearSpringsFarm

Chirping
6 Years
Mar 27, 2013
107
2
71
North Carolina Mountains


My little chick is now 48 hrs old - I had to help her hatch due to the fact that she was so weak and I noticed a lot of extra fluid in the shell - I think she almost drowned (Unfortunately six of her other hatchmates did drown after pipping internally - somehow she found the extra strength to break the outer shell but still couldn't get out). I dried her off a bit even had to dry her mouth out (she was extremely wet and had fluid running out of the sides of her beak and was gasping for breath.) I also noticed that her abdomen where the yolk is absorbed was really large but it has since gone to normal size. I let her dry out and thought she was going to be fine. But it's like her legs are still cramped in the shell. She can move her toes so I know she is not paralyzed, but her hocks seem to be permanently bent and she is trying to walk on them - creating more of a scooting movement and rolling over on her back a lot. She does this on ANY surface - not just slick ones. I read somewhere on one of the forums that it could possibly straighten out by themselves and in another place that I should put her in a teacup or similar shaped/sized container so she can gain strength in her legs - I tried that after she had been this way for 24 hrs with no improvement - BUT she just pulls herself out of the cup with her feet. I even tried the bandaid trick for splayed legs - but she walks on the hocks - and holds her feet up under her wings with the bandaid hobble on. I tried to gently message her into straightening the hocks but the will not budge - and I'm afrain I will break her legs with too much force. Everything else is normal - she will eat and drink and has normal poops. I took video of her movement - currently waiting for it to upload on youtube will post ASAP. Can anyone help??
 
Dawg will avian super pack help a chick hatched yesterday and its toes are bending funky and has splay leg? I think it's from temp and humidity spikes in the homemade brooder.
This is it and our efforts trying to fix it.
5696753
 
Most likely there's a biotin or riboflavin deficiency, maybe vitamin B...the Avian Super Pack will provide the necessary vitamins/minerals to help her. You can give it to other chicks as well.
 
Can you do leg exercises with her? Like streatch them out, roll them around and kind of things? That helps strengthen her legs and as if she were actually walking around with her legs. She probably also has this problem because you helped hatch her. When baby chicks hatch they use their legs to kick and pull themselves out of the egg. Since yours didn't do that it has to get its leg strenght a different way. So I greatly recommend leg exercises and propping her up the correct way and holding the legs out as if the chick were stretching. I have done this with my chicks several times and it releases tension and makes them feel better.
 

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