Chick won't walk...

[Airdale]

My wife is a school teacher, and every once in awhile she hatches chickens for her classroom. When the chicks get old enough, they go to her parents house where they have a bunch of chickens.

This year was a disaster. She usually gets fertilized eggs given to her for her class. This year, only 3 chicks hatched from a dozen eggs. Two of them already died. One seemed very healthy, then it just died. The other one was born with its guts outside its body. That one died.

The last one, which was the first hatched on Monday the 11th, appears very healthy EXCEPT for the fact that she won't walk! She has plenty of drive to survive and she eats, drinks and goes to bathroom. But for some odd reason, she will not stretch her legs. She holds them close to her body.

If you pick her up, she olds her legs tight. Her cage had paper towels when she was hatched, we've since put a towel in there to try and get her some traction. Sometimes when she tries to move around, her legs spread apart, so I put a small rubber band brace to keep them from spreading out too far, but it doesn't hold her legs together.

Bascially she flops around on her belly and squirms with her feet. She will not stand up. I've been trying exercises with her to get her to use her leg muscles, but she's shown not much progress. She appears to be a bit strong than a few days ago, because if I hold her by her feet and place her upside down, she can do pull ups now with her legs, whereas before she just hung there upside down and did nothing. Now she is pulling herself up and letting herself go down again slowly.

I'm not sure how long we should give her. My wife is very upset that this chicken hatch didn't go well, and she doesn't want to give up on the baby chick, especially considering she has a lot of will and drive to survive. She scurries around a lot, eats and drinks and aside from the fact that she won't walk, she's normal. I'm affraid she's hurting herself more by not standing because the back of her knees where the joint is, is not looking too good from being used to push off of. She needs to be strong and healthy to survive at my in laws house. They have a nice coupe, but if chickie can't walk, she's going to be killed. My hope was that as she gets older (by the week) her muscles will strengthen and maybe she will mature enough to really fight to stand up.

Anything we can do? Or should she be put down?

 

[Polish Chickens]

If the poor chick isn't able to walk. My best possibility is to cull her

 

[Airdale]

I'm affraid that is going be the end result, but we're really trying to give her a chance. I thought maybe somebody out there has been successful with this sort of thing. It would be ashame to cull her when she has so much drive to live. Not sure if its a physical deformity or not, but she appears to be structured properly but will not use her muscles to upright herself. Just holds them legs tight.

 

[Polish Chickens]

But she should be given a second chance at life even if she isn't able to walk. So perhaps just keep her

 

[kazkut]

the single chick i had that hatched at the beginning of this month has the same problem. He is a little over 2 weeks now and is doing fine, but cannot walk properly. He learned to stay upright and walk around on his elbows if you would call it that. he'll probably be a free-range backyard chicken if a rooster since i know the cats won't mess with it (he's a Thai gamefowl, will be big 7-8 lb rooster), if it's turns out to be a female i'll have to keep it caged in the backyard.

Someone told me it is a riboflavin deficiency at birth, and if treated with polyvisol (with no iron) from day one (The dosage is 3 drops by mouth 3 times a day for 3 days then 2 drops for 1 day for 2 days) the chick will usually gain strength in its feet. I got some polyvisol and dosed the chick at day 3 but I think it was too late already, he did start walking around and standing upright on his elbows a lot better after that though. oh well, i have some eggs ready to hatch next month so i have the polyvisol with no iron ready to go.

 

[Polish Chickens]

Quote:
I wouldn't recommend him to be a free range if a Roo. There are other predators that still can kill him like Racoons, Possums, Foxes, Wild Cats, Dogs, Coyotes, Fisher Cats, Weasles, Hawks, Minks and Rats (Which a Rat can kill a full grown Hen or Roo)

 

[kazkut]

forgot to mention i live in the city.. heheh.
small backyard. the only real predators here are the neighborhood cats. i have this little 4 month old female american pitbull terrier that i keep in the back occasionally to get some sun and play and she adores the little guy (i have him in a plastic storage container with fencing over the top). hoping she will not be a chicken eater when she grows up if i socialize her right now. so far she gets along fine with cats.. it's strange i see neighborhood cats out there and she does nothing.. just stares at them.