day old - splayed leg?

[mamahen82]

I perhaps should have posted this over in injuries/emergencies? I have a day-old chick that had alot of trouble hatching and is unable to stand upright. I've done the band-aid splint I saw on here but when I try to stand the poor little thing upright it just falls over, always to the left side.

Is this likely something other than a splayed leg? maybe something broken?

 

[DerbyChook]

I had one like that. It looked like his leg got crushed, either in the shell or as he hatched. He could barely stand upright. I did the bandaid thing, gave him baby vitamins and made sure he got adequate food and water. Not sure the bandaid helped, but he is 100% now. Can't tell that he was injured at all.

Hope your little guy does as well as mine. I was sure I was going to have to cull.

 

[ScissorChick]

When they have the splint on, they are going to fall over until they get the hang of it.

You should spend atleast 40 minutes with the chick after putting the splint on to be sure

that it is standing ok. If they are not standing ok, they can flip and tumble onto their backs,

or into their water bowl, and basically give up and die, or drown. They will not stand on their

feet when you put the splint on, but on their 'elbows'. Good luck with your baby

ScissorChick

 

[mamahen82]

thanks for the reassurance. How long did it take until the chick was doing betteR?

 

[DerbyChook]

Quote:
Maybe 2-3 days until I was confident he was ok, and a week for the limp to disappear. I did have to watch him for a bit after putting the bandaid on because he kept flipping onto his back. He is fine now. Keeps up with his siblings like there was never a problem. I named him Bandaid since he still has a bit of one stuck to his leg feathers.