For those in a rush, the short question is how to go about splinting an injured leg of a day-old chick where you can't identify which bone(s) are injured. Should I do my best to try to splint the femur, tibia, and metatarsus? I don't think I will be able to separate the chick from the mother and other chicks, is that okay or is it absolutely necessary to separate? It is dark out now and I don't want take the chick from the warmth of it's mother. Tomorrow I will take a closer inspection and try to post pictures and maybe a video. The chicken seems to have almost no use of the leg. I really don't want to cull this chick because it has been through a lot and seems otherwise healthy and happy.
The long story of how it happened is I had two hens go broody at the same time. I let each hen have 4 eggs. I think sometimes the columbian rock got pushed out of her nest by other hens but would find her way back onto her eggs pretty quickly. Once in a while I would find that she had settled in another nesting box so I would pick her up and put her back on her eggs. The eggs were pipping last night so I have been spending a lot of time with the chickens today and I was getting ready to put her in a brooder box so she would be separate from the flock. I went into the coop and she was in the wrong nest box and one of the chicks was just starting to split its egg open. I gently put the columbian rock back on the eggs and a few minutes later when the chick started to wriggle a bit she attacked it! She had it in her beak and started to thrash it a bit. I grabbed her by the neck and she dropped the chick and i put her out side. I thought the chick was done for sure, but when I picked it up it seemed mostly okay so I carefully cleaned it off a bit and put it under the the Buff Brahma in the small coop (her first egg hatched the night before). I also gave her the rest of the columbian rocks eggs. Shortly after the other eggs started to hatch and she now has 5 chicks and another one starting to break through it's shell.
So basically this little chick has been through a lot but other than it's lame leg, it seems very happy and healthy. I haven't had to splint chicken legs before but I think my best bet is to splint and put the chick back with mom and the siblings. I have some vet wrap which seems like the way to go for splinting. The chick seems to be able to poke it's head out, and get back under mom, but with how limited it's mobility seems, I'm afraid it won't make it in a separate box with a heat lamp. I don't think it would be able to move very will to the sweet spot as the ambient temperate changes. I also don't know what to do about splinting. And whether I should splint the toes or not. Like make a full boot for it essentially. Like I said I will try to take pictures tomorrow so I don't disturb her and take her into the cold night air.
Thanks for any guidance.
Edit: I should point out I can't guarantee its not a displaced joint, broken pelvis or broken back. The left leg appears fine so I would tend to rule out broken back. There appeared to be contusions on the both the femur and tibia if I recall correctly.
The long story of how it happened is I had two hens go broody at the same time. I let each hen have 4 eggs. I think sometimes the columbian rock got pushed out of her nest by other hens but would find her way back onto her eggs pretty quickly. Once in a while I would find that she had settled in another nesting box so I would pick her up and put her back on her eggs. The eggs were pipping last night so I have been spending a lot of time with the chickens today and I was getting ready to put her in a brooder box so she would be separate from the flock. I went into the coop and she was in the wrong nest box and one of the chicks was just starting to split its egg open. I gently put the columbian rock back on the eggs and a few minutes later when the chick started to wriggle a bit she attacked it! She had it in her beak and started to thrash it a bit. I grabbed her by the neck and she dropped the chick and i put her out side. I thought the chick was done for sure, but when I picked it up it seemed mostly okay so I carefully cleaned it off a bit and put it under the the Buff Brahma in the small coop (her first egg hatched the night before). I also gave her the rest of the columbian rocks eggs. Shortly after the other eggs started to hatch and she now has 5 chicks and another one starting to break through it's shell.
So basically this little chick has been through a lot but other than it's lame leg, it seems very happy and healthy. I haven't had to splint chicken legs before but I think my best bet is to splint and put the chick back with mom and the siblings. I have some vet wrap which seems like the way to go for splinting. The chick seems to be able to poke it's head out, and get back under mom, but with how limited it's mobility seems, I'm afraid it won't make it in a separate box with a heat lamp. I don't think it would be able to move very will to the sweet spot as the ambient temperate changes. I also don't know what to do about splinting. And whether I should splint the toes or not. Like make a full boot for it essentially. Like I said I will try to take pictures tomorrow so I don't disturb her and take her into the cold night air.
Thanks for any guidance.
Edit: I should point out I can't guarantee its not a displaced joint, broken pelvis or broken back. The left leg appears fine so I would tend to rule out broken back. There appeared to be contusions on the both the femur and tibia if I recall correctly.
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