Chick with swollen hock - please help ASAP

[aude]

Hello,
A coworker asked if I could take one of their chicks as they did not know what to do (although I feel equally helpless). It is about 5 days old. Hock joint area is swollen as is foot and leg. My initial thought was a slipped tendon but I tried gently stretching leg back as recommended but didn't get any kind of effect. Chick is eating and drinking but limping around on the one good leg and the hock of the other leg. Here are some pictures:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7ZB-Uhz3p_RU2R1V1hmMnJ5Z00

Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Eggcessive]

I am having trouble viewing your pictures. Slipped tendons are rarely helped, unfortunately. Some turn out to be leg bone deformities such a s varus valgus deformity, twisted tibia, or tibial dyschondrondroplasia (TD) and others, but while it is good to try splinting, chick vitamins, and other treatments, many times nothing helps. Some do live fairly normal lives with some extra TLC. There is a good thread called "Slipped tendon--anyone tried to fix this" by Cicala that you can read by doing a search at the top of this page or by Googling it. Her chick grew into adulthood and seemed to be thriving with his leg problem. Many will suffer a hock tendon rupture at some point unfortunately.

 

[aude]

So I managed to find a vet in the area who claimed experience with chickens. She gave the chick a splint, diagnosed splayed leg, gave antibiotics for swelling and recommended use of a chick chair - we have been doing all of this since Wed but the swellings seems only to have progressed. I have two other chicks I am rehabing that have splayed leg (and are responding to splints and treatment) and honestly this does not look like splayed leg to me...I worry the joint has become infected (worse case scenario). I am located in central NJ and have already had to travel hours to find anyone who has any knowledge base about chickens but all I got was what I feel was a misdiagnosis. Obviously if the infection is going to progress, we are entering quality of life, pain and suffering territory, etc. I am not a chicken owner (these chicks were basically surrendered to me because nobody knew what to do with them - school incubator project, long story there in itself) so I am having a difficult time deciding what to do despite the fact that I have spent hours reading different threads on this forum.

Basically, I need some advice -does this still look treatable? What would you advise that I do next?




:

 

[jay_aubin]

So I managed to find a vet in the area who claimed experience with chickens. She gave the chick a splint, diagnosed splayed leg, gave antibiotics for swelling and recommended use of a chick chair - we have been doing all of this since Wed but the swellings seems only to have progressed. I have two other chicks I am rehabing that have splayed leg (and are responding to splints and treatment) and honestly this does not look like splayed leg to me...I worry the joint has become infected (worse case scenario). I am located in central NJ and have already had to travel hours to find anyone who has any knowledge base about chickens but all I got was what I feel was a misdiagnosis. Obviously if the infection is going to progress, we are entering quality of life, pain and suffering territory, etc. I am not a chicken owner (these chicks were basically surrendered to me because nobody knew what to do with them - school incubator project, long story there in itself) so I am having a difficult time deciding what to do despite the fact that I have spent hours reading different threads on this forum.

Basically, I need some advice -does this still look treatable? What would you advise that I do next?




:

Did you ever find an answer? I have a chick with the same exact thing