Crooked Feet?

[Silkies4everr]

We did a lot of physical therapy. I can't think of anything else but a vet for something like that. B-Complex too.

Were these assisted out? It's just odd you have so many from one hatch.

Only the bantams had issues. Silkies were all fine. First two hatched on their own (crooked foot one and split tendon one), third one had to be assisted (curled toes)

Edit: I also put 18 eggs into lockdown, had 9 hatch, one in the process right now, and the rest were all dead.

 

[Debbie292d]

Only the bantams had issues. Silkies were all fine. First two hatched on their own (crooked foot one and split tendon one), third one had to be assisted (curled toes)

Did these eggs all come from your chickens? If so, I'd try separate the bantam hens to only saving and hatching one hen's at a time to try narrow this down. It could be your rooster too. It's obviously not nutritional if the silkies all were fine.

I have an issue in my buff silkie pen I thought I figured out, yet, nope, had three more splayed legs this last hatch of 30, all buffs.

 

[Silkies4everr]

Did these eggs all come from your chickens? If so, I'd try separate the bantam hens to only saving and hatching one hen's at a time to try narrow this down. It could be your rooster too. It's obviously not nutritional if the silkies all were fine.

I have an issue in my buff silkie pen I thought I figured out, yet, nope, had three more splayed legs this last hatch of 30, all buffs.

They're all from my chickens. If I remember correctly I have six hens and one rooster in the bantam pen. They're barely laying right now as it's going towards winter here.

 

[Silkies4everr]

Did these eggs all come from your chickens? If so, I'd try separate the bantam hens to only saving and hatching one hen's at a time to try narrow this down. It could be your rooster too. It's obviously not nutritional if the silkies all were fine.

I have an issue in my buff silkie pen I thought I figured out, yet, nope, had three more splayed legs this last hatch of 30, all buffs.

Last night the 10th chick finally hatched out by itself, I noticed it had curled toes so the plan is to fix them this morning now that it's fluffed up. It has feathered legs so I'm going to have to put something near the feathers so they don't get pulled out by the tape when I take it off.

Additionally three chicks need a hobble so I will be doing those today as well, two silkies and one bantam that need a hobble.

I'm thinking it could be the incubator I moved them to for lockdown so for my next batch I'm going to keep them in the same incubator and see if it improves.

 

[Debbie292d]

Last night the 10th chick finally hatched out by itself, I noticed it had curled toes so the plan is to fix them this morning now that it's fluffed up. It has feathered legs so I'm going to have to put something near the feathers so they don't get pulled out by the tape when I take it off.

Additionally three chicks need a hobble so I will be doing those today as well, two silkies and one bantam that need a hobble.

I'm thinking it could be the incubator I moved them to for lockdown so for my next batch I'm going to keep them in the same incubator and see if it improves.

If you can pick up some VetWrap, that won’t rip out feathers. Painters tape works similarity but VetWrap is more pliable.

This is now definitely sounding either nutritional or the incubation.

If you don’t have a hygrometer/thermometer, I’d get one to check both incubators. Many of us like the Govee brand on Amazon. They have dozens of models, some are Wi-Fi.

I’d get all those chicks on Poultry Cell or Nuti-Drench every other day in their water. The adults too, just to be sure. After a week or two, you can slow it down to once or twice a week.

 

[Silkies4everr]

If you can pick up some VetWrap, that won’t rip out feathers. Painters tape works similarity but VetWrap is more pliable.

This is now definitely sounding either nutritional or the incubation.

If you don’t have a hygrometer/thermometer, I’d get one to check both incubators. Many of us like the Govee brand on Amazon. They have dozens of models, some are Wi-Fi.

I’d get all those chicks on Poultry Cell or Nuti-Drench every other day in their water. The adults too, just to be sure. After a week or two, you can slow it down to once or twice a week.

I have some gauze for people that's pretty similar I can use.

I have thermometer things that show the humidity as well as temperature.

The incubator I used for lockdown is a fairly large one so the temperature is not always consistent throughout the entire space of it, I placed the eggs in the area that was around 99 - 100 degrees F.

I'll see if I can get some of that, I believe I've seen some at my local TSC before.

 

[Silkies4everr]

If you can pick up some VetWrap, that won’t rip out feathers. Painters tape works similarity but VetWrap is more pliable.

This is now definitely sounding either nutritional or the incubation.

If you don’t have a hygrometer/thermometer, I’d get one to check both incubators. Many of us like the Govee brand on Amazon. They have dozens of models, some are Wi-Fi.

I’d get all those chicks on Poultry Cell or Nuti-Drench every other day in their water. The adults too, just to be sure. After a week or two, you can slow it down to once or twice a week.

I moved all the silkie chicks into the brooder yesterday, they're all walking around fine. Keeping the remaining bantam chick in the incubator with food and water until it is a bit more confident with its hobble.

I'll probably move the bantam chick into the brooder with the others tomorrow.

I've given the adults and the chicks poultry-cell in their water.

 

[Debbie292d]

I moved all the silkie chicks into the brooder yesterday, they're all walking around fine. Keeping the remaining bantam chick in the incubator with food and water until it is a bit more confident with its hobble.

I'll probably move the bantam chick into the brooder with the others tomorrow.

I've given the adults and the chicks poultry-cell in their water.

Glad to hear they're overcoming their problems.

The Poultry Cell should help the adults should there have been any deficiencies.

I don't know if we ever discussed feed but I feed all of the chicks and chickens (all silkies) Kalmbach's Flock Maker. I have dishes for the hens with oyster shell in it. For scratch, they get a few times a week, Kalmbach's Henhouse Reserve. That's actually a layer feed we tried a few years ago and they just picked through it. Now I buy it for scratch as it's cheaper than scratch and way more nutritious, plus they love it. Other than that, rarely anything else. Occasionally, scrambled eggs when we have too many, or stuff from the garden in season. They love Kale.

 

[Silkies4everr]

Glad to hear they're overcoming their problems.

The Poultry Cell should help the adults should there have been any deficiencies.

I don't know if we ever discussed feed but I feed all of the chicks and chickens (all silkies) Kalmbach's Flock Maker. I have dishes for the hens with oyster shell in it. For scratch, they get a few times a week, Kalmbach's Henhouse Reserve. That's actually a layer feed we tried a few years ago and they just picked through it. Now I buy it for scratch as it's cheaper than scratch and way more nutritious, plus they love it. Other than that, rarely anything else. Occasionally, scrambled eggs when we have too many, or stuff from the garden in season. They love Kale.

We feed them chick starter for a few weeks then swap them over to wet chicken feed until their beaks are big enough to eat it dry.

We also have oyster shell available for the hens.

 

[Debbie292d]

We feed them chick starter for a few weeks then swap them over to wet chicken feed until their beaks are big enough to eat it dry.

We also have oyster shell available for the hens.

Silkies especially shouldn't be switched to layer feed until they are actually laying. I'd keep them on the chick starter until then. In our case, they never change as they're on all-flock from day 1 until they die from old age.