Chick with hurt leg

[Chrisandheather]

Chick hatched (naturally) yesterday. When we were checking on the hen and all her chicks today, we found one with a hurt leg. It has a couple cut places, swollen near the joint, and can't hold weight.

We took the chick out of that pen and have brought it inside for the night. We are using a heater to warm our bathroom up to 90. The chick won't take water out of the little dish, but will eagerly take it from my finger or the side of a dropper or q-tip. I have given it a little Gatorade to try to give it a boost right now, too.

How often do I need to keep trying to give it water/Gatorade? What else do I need to do to help it out?

 

[HenniesInMyHeart]

Aww you are a good chickie parent! Can you take close-up pictures of the injured leg for us? Depending on what kind of injury it is, there are different things you can do to help your wee one. Good on you for bringing him/her inside! If they're alone, please consider providing a cuddle buddy stuffed plushie toy, and/or a mirror. Chicks are social beings and will panic if all alone. As for drinking, yay you did right to give electrolytes! You should be able to get the chick to drink by dipping his/her beak into the water dish. If they have trouble, you may want to use your finger like a "mama beak" and try "pecking" the water with your finger so it is below the surface, in order to get the chick to follow it and discover the water, and making mama hen sounds. It can take a while. I would keep offering periodically, or give him/her as much as s/he will drink from a dropper/q tip. Keep us posted! Your little one is in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[ChickNanny13]

If you can get to the feed store, Nutri Drench or Save A Chick is good too. Chick Starter for feed, wet it to make a mash. Boiled egg yolk is good too. HenniesInMyHeater gave good advice.

 

[Shezadandy]

If it can't bear weight then you'll need to get it in a position where it can be upright - build a little chick chair. Poultridrench and egg as noted above are good- though if it just hatched yesterday don't panic about the eating/drinking - they can go 2-3 days (total) on the yolk they absorb just before hatching.

 

[Shezadandy]

Check out this thread for great starter ideas on how to do the chick chair. And remember to make sure there's room for the poop to fall- don't want to accidentally creat a pasty butt situation by having poop stick to the vent. That could be a slipped tendon.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/versions-of-chick-chairs-please.1166308/#post-18353109

 

[Shezadandy]

Here's a great guide for diagnosing the chick's leg problem and how best to help it. It's a long site but covers a lot of info... Any idea if it hatched this way or was it accidentally stepped on by momma?

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[Chrisandheather]

Any idea if it hatched this way or was it accidentally stepped on by momma?

It was up and hopping around yesterday afternoon. It looked healthy then.

The picture I added earlier isn't the best but I couldn't get my camera to focus on a closer shot. There is a gash (but not too deep) near the swollen area and one more place up near one of the toes. I tried cleaning some of the crusted stuff off it where it had been in the pen and hay and everything was stuck to the leg and it's side. I was hoping with things not crusted on it would have more mobility. That is when I noticed it actually had a cut and good but of swelling It is also a pinker color in that area than the other leg. We are suspecting the hen stepped on it, but we don't have any way of knowing for sure.

 

[Chrisandheather]

Well, this is our set-up for the night. Going to bed and hoping for the best. Thanks for the initial ideas. Anything else worth trying would be appreciated too.

 

[Chrisandheather]

Aww you are a good chickie parent! Can you take close-up pictures of the injured leg for us? Depending on what kind of injury it is, there are different things you can do to help your wee one.

I tried to crop the picture and zoom in on it to help you see a bit better. Still can't get my camera to focus good any closer up though.

 

[the backyard zoo]

it could be broken and you might need to make a chick splint