Chick with Injured Leg

[mhschafer]

Hi,

I asked this on another thread but only got one response. Was hoping for some more insight.

We have a two week old chick with an injured leg. Some of our chicks this year are HUGE--as in twice as large as the others--and I think this little one was injured by one of the bigger ones. It doesn't seem to be splayed legs--only one affected leg that is twisted abnormally.

I've read that you can splint it with pipecleaner or bandaid or popsickle stick, but others say that could cause more problems than leaving it alone.

My husband and I feel she probably won't make it, but our daughter is very upset. We even called a vet's office with an avian vet and she refused to see a chick.

We have the chick isolated in a cardboard box under a heatlamp with food and water. Is there anything else we can do? I'll try to attach a picture.

The affected leg is to the left in the picture (the chicken' right leg).

Any ideas?

Thanks for listening and for your thoughts.

 

[Keggen]

Is the chick able to stand and walk with both legs? In my opinion if you are unable to mend their legs/feet somehow so that they can stand and walk and have full access to food and water on their own then the chick has almost no chance.

At 2 weeks old you might be able to gently maneuver the leg into the correct position but if you meet resistance the odds are that you'll really hurt it if you try to force a certain position.

There's no harm in trying and a lot of people do have success with splints of various types. Another suggestion is to make a temporary "chair" to keep the chick upright if it's unable to be upright on its own. I had a chick that I was trying to help with similar leg and foot issues but she was completely unable to stand without assistance. After a few days of this I noticed her whole body structure was changing in a bad way. The arch of her back started curving the wrong way and ultimately I think it harmed her and she died. There just was no way for me to have held her upright all day so I should have made a sling or chair.

More info about the condition of your chick will help get you more specific advice.

 

[mhschafer]

Thank you for your response to my question about the chick.

No, she is unable to stand up on her own, though he can navigate by scooting around as her other leg seems fine.

 

[PoultryPedia]

There is info on treating splay leg on the site in my sig, if it's useful.
Splay leg actually will commonly only rotate one leg in a young chick. It looks to me like this chick has it. At 2 weeks, I'm very sorry to say it can't be treated.
It is so hard. I'm sorry.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Later note:
Do you know when the chick started having problems. If the chick didn't develop the problem until after it had walked normally a couple days, then it actually isn't splay leg.
However, the problem does look serious enough to not be able to remedy, I think. I'm sorry for the difficulty you face.

 

[mhschafer]

Thank you for your response. No, we didn't notice any problem with the chick before yesterday, and they are two weeks old.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Just thought of it--** Check for a Slipped Tendon ASAP!! **

There are instructions on that on the Poultry Podiatry page on my site.