Curled toes in 6 week old chick

ChickenTenderz

Songster
Mar 21, 2023
157
195
131
Upstate South Carolina
We noticed Saturday one of our 6 week old chicks was moving a little slow. Sunday she wasn't walking and as a result was pecked on the head pretty bad causing bleeding. (The peck isn't why she's not walking, it happened when my daughter went to get her to check out her feet)
We treated the head wound and that is mending. But her right leg doesn't seem to work well. Another thing to know is we had just recently burned a bunch of tree limbs and I put the ashes in the run Saturday afternoon for the chickens to dirt bath in but they appear to have eaten the ashes because I see alot of black poop and I saw them pecking at it. I have since removed all the ashes from the run.
We kept the chick inside and fed her scrambled egg and offered plenty of water and kept her warm. She seemed to improve some, at least she was no longer lethargic like when we found her. Last night we kept her isolated with a buddy of the same age for company. She is back in the house with my daughter today eating all the scrambled egg & chick starter she wants but still not up and walking around.
I plan to get some nutritional yeast after work today to get more B vitamins in her system because I read that eating too much ashes could block her from absorbing B vitamins which might cause neurological problems like curled toes.
Any suggestions on what to do?
 
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This can be the result of vitamin B2 deficiency.
Give her human B complex. You can get it at any pharmacy. Or you can get B2 specifically in line.
It is very safe so don’t worry about giving human doses and don’t worry if your other chickens eat it (as long as Smokey gets plenty).
I found opening capsules onto mash made from their regular feed and water was easiest. It turns the mash yellow and that seemed quite popular.
You may have to give it for several weeks while Smokey is growing.
 
This can be the result of vitamin B2 deficiency.
Give her human B complex. You can get it at any pharmacy. Or you can get B2 specifically in line.
It is very safe so don’t worry about giving human doses and don’t worry if your other chickens eat it (as long as Smokey gets plenty).
I found opening capsules onto mash made from their regular feed and water was easiest. It turns the mash yellow and that seemed quite popular.
You may have to give it for several weeks while Smokey is growing.
I had started giving her nutritional yeast last night but found out today it doesn't contain B2 riboflavin, I went today to get liquid B complex. So we'll start that this evening.
 
Should I try to make Chicken sandals to help with the curled toes?
I did because I was worried she would get sores on the top of her foot if she kept using it to stand.
As you can see in the thread I made of her journey, it was hard to watch at first.
Happy ending though.
I also did regular massage to make sure her tendons didn't tighten up.
She had a couple of relapses - including the other leg going bad when I eased off the vitamins, but one day she was suddenly just fine!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/3-week-old-chick-with-a-bad-leg-any-advice-please.1519956/
 

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