chicks leg worse, going backwards now.

[jafo57]

I had previously posted about a baby chicken whose leg was sliding out to the side, I used a rubber band and straw,and it appeared better but aways pulling a little to the side-- we left it for a week and it seemed the baby chick was walking better with it. Then I noticed she was always sitting and rarely walking yesterday... I watched for awhile and realized the leg that used to go to the side is going completely backwards and completely opposite the front leg-- she has one leg that faces the front and the other leg has developed a big knot on it and is now facing completely backwards. I'm not sure what happened, but it isn't something that I could just tape forward, it seems to have grown even more deformed in the last day. She is in a broader with just one other baby chick and the other chick doesn't appear to pick on her but seems very protective of her... Any thoughts on what happened and advice on what to do?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

She may have injured herself somehow and the wound has calcified that way? I've had 1 chick do exactly the same thing, after hobbling its legs, as well. The wonky legs turned itself backwards and she had a huge knot where the "knee" was. She did okay for a while, hopping around on the one good leg, then just seemed to go down hill. I ended up culling her when she seemed to be really struggling.
I don't really think there's anything you can do for it at this point, other than cull or accept that you'll have a special needs chicken who'll need a bit more care.
Good luck

 

[mrchicks]

We had one like that, poor little Weebles. We treated for splay leg, but the leg ended up just as you described. I did take Weebles to the vet, he told me that it wasn't splay leg, that it was an actual deformity of the leg, and was not my fault. Your birds leg problem is not your fault either. He suggested that we cull the bird to stop it from suffering. He did explain it all to me, but to be honest all I was hearing was cull the bird.

Here's what we had been doing, sadly it did not help: