Complication due to curled toes--should I cull?

[warmfuzzyfeeling]

Hello,

We had a chick hatch with two curled toes--the front inside toe on each foot. I tried splinting them without success, but it seemed to get around fine so I decided to leave the chick alone and just avoid using this one for breeding. The chick is now almost fully mature and the toes remain curved just enough so that he/she walks on the sides of the toes. The front inside toe of each foot tends to be a bit swollen, but today I saw that one of the swollen toes is now quite swollen and a dark, ruddy color. This reddish color extends up along the artery on the leg as well and looks very painful. The bird acts perfectly fine but from the look of it, I think it may be time to cull. I just wanted to inquire first to make sure that this is necessary. I thought about amputating the toe as I have silver nitrate to cauterize the wound and viscous lidocaine to numb the area afterwards. But, I don't want to put the chick though such a brutal procedure if it is unlikely to recover and still be able to walk.

Thank you very much,
Jennifer

 

[Karen_at_LittleBrook]

If she's walking, eating, drinking and behaving otherwise normal I would leave her alone. I know that Curly Toe Paralysis - Deficiency of riboflavin. Add milk products... and maybe an antibiotc? Good luck~

 

[grasjm36]

Theres no reason to cull. If the bird is acting fine and doing their regular chicken thing, than just leave them. They have a disability. I have a black star named Curly that came like that. Shes one of my best layers and I wouldn't trade anything for her

 

[BirdBrain]

DO NOT use lidocaine or any "caine" products as that family of drugs will kill chickens. Speckledhen lost onr of her best roosters this way.

 

[warmfuzzyfeeling]

Thanks for the advice! Now that you mention it, I remember reading about lidocaine being dangerous to birds. Looking at pictures online, I think that this bird actually has "crooked toes" rather than "curly toes". Another chick from the same group had a curled foot and, while I was able to fix it with a bandaid boot, it remained very much a runt. These were hatched from eggs purchased on eBay, so there are probably too many variables to be able to guess whether it is genetic, nutritional, incubation problems, etc. I'll try adding vitamins to the water in case it helps and try to pick up some antibiotics.

I'll give it a few more days and watch whether the swelling improves. The bird acts perfectly fine and I am always so reluctant to cull that I later regret having allowed an animal to suffer as long as I did. I just don't want to be cruel if it is in pain. This is actually a button quail by the way, but I posted on the chicken forum in hopes of getting more responses.

Jennifer