Day Old Chick - Slipped Tendon or Splayed Legs?? I Need Your Help PLEASE

[Eggcessive]

I'm sorry to hear that the chick is no better thailand. Is it drinking the vitamin water? The only other thing I can suggest is to try a chick chair. There are many pictures of those and chicken slings here if you search at the top of the page, or do a Google search. Hoping for the best.

 

[thailand]

Thanks for your reply. I think I've decided that it is a hip issue. He/She seems way more comfortable out of the hobble braces. What I've done instead is wrap around the body with vetwrap and then put in a chick chair. The chick is much more peaceful. It seems that when the hips are held in like this that there is less pain for the chick.

I'm hoping that this will work. Guess I'll give it a day or so and then check.

Patience in these things is not easy and I find myself second-guessing everything I try to do to help.

Yes, the chick is taking sips of vitamin/electrolyte water, as well as taking poultry vitamin drops available here in Thailand. Also a little interested in eating now, not much, but some. I've tried giving fermented feed and also just chick starter.

 

[alyssaallycat]

Whatever seems to help soothe the pain. Just out of curiousity, can post a picture of the chick chair? I have never made one and want to see one acually in use instead of just in diagrams.
P.s you are a great chick parent!!!

 

[thailand]

Sure, here is my version of a chick chair LOL. Sorry for all the cheeping in the video! She/he didn't like that I had taken her/him out of the brooder. But the reason I took the video for you is that you can see how a couple of times the chick is pushing up....I'm figuring this is a good thing i.e. strengthening the hips. Under the yoghurt container I have the chicks hip area bandaged to try to pull the hips together a bit more. I have noticed that if I lightly press the hips in at the hip joints on both sides that the chip stops cheeping and seems to be in a lot less distress. Time will tell if this works or not.

 

[alyssaallycat]

The chick seems improved! What Breed is it?

 

[thailand]

A Black Australorp.

Well, being the extremely impatient person that I am!!, I have just finished tweaking things yet again

Don't know if I'm mucking things up more or helping.....

I pulled the chick out of the chair and decided to redo the hobbles. I then got to thinking about a new idea. While working this out I let the chick try to stand up with the hobbles off, but still with the shoes on. Well, I think it just might be improving a little bit! The chick is very much trying to stand up.

What I've done now, thinking that it is a hip problem and not a hock problem, I've got some tiny plastic straws and made splints for both legs. I've used vet-wrap to attach them, running from the hips down past the hocks. I then replaced the chick back into the chick chair and from underneath the chair vet-wrapped the legs together a little. My thinking is to bring the hips inwards and hopefully if the hips are dislocated or just not sitting quite right in the joints then this will help. I dunno.....it could all be for nothing. I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

Certainly this new arrangement has stopped the chick from cheeping incessantly, so maybe it's a good idea.

I'll try to be patient now and leave him/her like this till tomorrow morning. I'll then take everything off (checking that it's not all too tight), let her/him try standing, and re-do everything again. I'm figuring that the whole process will likely take about a week I guess.

 

[thailand]

Tonight the chick has been so quiet and peaceful that I was worried he/she may have died! Happily, no, still very much alive and ravenously hungry like he/she hasn't been the last few days.

I feel for sure this chick is no longer in any pain, or at least much reduced.

Dare I hope that he/she will be ok?

 

[alyssaallycat]

I would keep the chick the the chick care for longer,but my hopes had risen! Just some advice- the chick chair needs to have access to food, water, and heat still. You can connect the food and water to the chair, but make sure the chick can't drown in the water!

 

[Eggcessive]

That is good news, and I'm happy that the chick is more comfortable. It is really hard to deal with chicks having a problem because we feel so useless. It's good of you to try and do all you can. I had 2 chicks born that had neurological problems, and would arch their backs falling or backwards. After 3 days of trying chick chairs they obviously would not eat or drink or learn to stand, and they sadly died. Your chick chair looks really good. Here are some other ones BYC people had made:

 

[thailand]

Sadly the little chick died overnight

. I had noticed that the chick hadn't been cheeping as much as before, and last night there was a bit of a rattle in her/his chest. I did take the chick out of the chair last night and removed the hobbles - amazingly, the chick began walking!!! It was totally trying so hard, and was taking baby steps, pushing upwards and managing to move forward. Then this morning my husband found her. Her name was Hope.