Chick with curled toes-band-aid trick?

[hippichick]

I have a 2 day old silkie chick whose outside toes are curled in. I made the band-aid shoe, which I saw done on an earlier post. I was just wondering how long I have to leave it on?Does anyone know how long it takes for the toes to straighten out and when should I take the "shoe" off? I don't want to take it off too early.

Also I have a 3 day old chick whose two outside toes are fused--kinda webbed looking. I read on a post that you can cut the web to separate the toes, but not to do it until the chick is maybe 9 weeks old or so...Any ideas? And if I wait that long, won't it get worse?

I had a power outage on day 21, and the temp in the incubator dropped to below 90 degrees, so I'm wondering if this had something to do with these problems. One chick hatched on day 21 and the other on day 22.

Appreciate any help...

 

[silkiechicken]

For the bainaid chick, it may take varying amounts of time depnding on chick. Should be able to remove it in a week no problem. If it goes back, tape again. If it never works, no harm done if they can still get around.

For webbed toes. I guess you could cut it, but no need to if the bird is moving on their own just fine. Aesthetics aren't really that important to the bird themselves and often silkies will have webbed 4th and 5th toes. Just don't breed them. It won't get "worse" per se, just grow with the bird.

Temp drop and flux can affect bent toes and footing early on, but not growth defects such as webbing. That part is genetics. However, some bent toes can also be genetic. A temp drop on the very last day probably won't do much other than slow the hatch.

Best of luck

 

[WriterRiderChick]

Hippichick, I have the same problem with a day-old Silkie at the moment. I ended up splinting her with electrical tape (each individual toe - talk about micro surgery!). I first tried the spatula-looking bandaid trick, but she kept slipping around on those flippers, and I didn't want to add splayed legs to her list of woes. Good luck with your chick!