Chick with possible twisted leg/slipped achilles tendon

[HuntingChick14]

I have a buff brahma bantam chick that is 5 days old and has seemed to have hatched with a deformed leg. I looked up what it could be immediately and kept coming across splayed leg, so I tried hobbling her and doing "physical therapy" using a drinking glass. The more I read about splayed leg though, the more I think it might be a slipped tendon instead. She keeps holding her bad leg up and hopping around on her other good leg, kind of like she can't stretch out the other one (causing me to believe that it's a slipped tendon). She's been eating and drinking ok, but I want to try and correct her leg problem as best as I can so that she may survive and live a normal chicken life! (This picture was taking a few days ago, but she's the one sitting facing the camera. You can see that she has her right leg raised). Also, at this point, her leg has become twisted and her toes are beginning to curl. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can help save my little gal? Thanks in advance!

 

[Eggcessive]

Have you used some poultry vitamins in her water? If not you can use some in the water, or give PolyVisol without iron 2-3 drops orally each day, or some crushed B complex sprinkled onto some feed daily. Whatever you use, make sure they contain riboflavin, which rules out Poultry NutriDrench.

You may want to make her a little shoe out of tape to straighten her toes. Here is some reading about curled toes and slipped tendons:
https://www.chickenheavenonearth.co...u-can-do-to-help-chicken-heaven-on-earth.html

https://the-chicken-chick.com/spraddle-leg-in-baby-chicks-what-is-it/ (Scroll down to “crooked toes”)

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

 

[Eggcessive]

Leg bone deformities can be common in chicks. Varus or valgus deformity, twisted tibia, and others may be common. Here is some reading with pictures:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1051/leg-health-in-large-broilers/

https://www.researchgate.net/public..._of_the_Intertarsal_Joint_in_Broiler_Chickens

 

[casportpony]

These videos shows a chick with a slipped tendon.

 

[HuntingChick14]

I took some more pictures of her 2 nights ago and I've been stretching her leg a couple of times a day as well. Every time I squeeze on the side that I believe her tendon slipped over to, she cheeps really loudly so I can only assume that it's painful for her

 

[casportpony]

Is the leg starting to rotate?

 

[Northern.Ontario]

You'll need to get the tendon held in place somehow. The varus/valgus deformities are very difficult to correct and almost always end in culling.

 

[Eggcessive]

You cannot correct a varus or valgus deformity from what I have read. Many think a slipped tendon can be corrected, but it doesn’t seem to be very successful in most cases. It may be, as some links I have read, that a slipped tendon is a catch all phrase for leg bone deformities. Some do report that they have cured chicks from slipped tendons, but I don’t think that many are able to tell exactly what the problem is.

 

[casportpony]

@Garden Peas was able to fix one:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/peachick-with-slipped-tendon.1092979/

This post has pictures that show how she splinted it:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/peachick-with-slipped-tendon.1092979/page-2#post-16817050

 

[casportpony]

I forgot to mention that I tried to treat one, but once the hock got swollen the tendon would not stay in place and the leg rotated so much it was almost pointing backwards.