Finally but one with foot issues

[Chickaletta8]

I ended up with only 3 hatches out of 24. Sad but true. Now the issue is one of my lovelies has a foot that turns in and has a stumbly time moving around. What is wrong with my new baby?

 

[chooks4life]

I can't see from the pic but does it have the same amount of webbing between its inner toe and middle toe as the other foot? If not it may need a surgical separation, if the webbing is too tight, but it looks like a bone deformity.

The leg scale pattern is incorrect. This is a genetic issue and can be quite strong, hard to get rid of, keeps popping up in future generations. I culled my last breeders with twisted leg scales years ago but even the straight-scaled ones still pass on the occasional twisted-scaled leg or two.

The leg scales are linked to the underlying bone structure, they aren't meaningless, just like the position of the whorl on the face of a cow, horse, goat etc is linked to the bone structure underneath.

You will continue to have wonky legs as long as you breed those lines, but if most of the chicks hatched able to walk, you may be ok to keep breeding them carefully, however you will every now and then likely get one that struggles to walk like this. If it can walk and the movement of its walk is not getting worse, chances are it will learn to compensate and in the next few weeks you won't see any issues whatsoever. Provided it's the leg scaling causing the problem that is. There's a chance it's a broken big toe but I can't tell from the pic and it doesn't really look like it, but I'm not 100% sure.

I had a worst case scenario, their legs (depending on the scale pattern) would twist outwards or inwards, they struggled to walk for more than a week after hatching. And it hurt them too. Unfortunate.

Most chooks I see have bad or confused leg scaling but it doesn't appear progressive in a lot of them, rather it seems stabilized or static; in mine it was very progressive.

I will try to find you some good reference pics for the leg scaling if you're interested. I've tried to explain it before, often with pics, but it hasn't worked too well so far, but it's important info that all the old poultrybreeders used to know and most of the new ones don't --- and I had to find it out the hard way so I'd like to save others the trouble and the animals the suffering.

Best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

In this case, on the bad foot, the leg scaling is dictating that the outside toe is dominant, it's the middle toe as far as the scale pattern is concerned. You notice it leads straight on from the shinbone, in alignment with it, whereas the main/middle/big toe was supposed to be occupying that position instead. Hope this makes sense.

 

[Chickaletta8]

In this case, on the bad foot, the leg scaling is dictating that the outside toe is dominant, it's the middle toe as far as the scale pattern is concerned. You notice it leads straight on from the shinbone, in alignment with it, whereas the main/middle/big toe was supposed to be occupying that position instead. Hope this makes sense.

Will band aid taping help this situation? I am guessing if it is genetic, it won't. If it is broken, it will. I guess either way the chick will compensate. For now I have him in a smaller box so that he can get to the food and water. The others we're knocking it away as he ate. Thank you for your response. I am a 1st time mom and am so grateful for this forum. I feel like I have a lot of backing and help during this uncharted territory.

 

[chooks4life]

Will band aid taping help this situation? I am guessing if it is genetic, it won't. If it is broken, it will.

I guess either way the chick will compensate. For now I have him in a smaller box so that he can get to the food and water. The others we're knocking it away as he ate. Thank you for your response. I am a 1st time mom and am so grateful for this forum. I feel like I have a lot of backing and help during this uncharted territory.

Because the chick's foot was so obviously abnormal I didn't mention it, but maybe should have; many people use vitamin B complex, or brewer's yeast, or similar (lol some people in Australia even use Vegemite) to bump up their B vit levels. Many lameness and neurological issues are based on lack of B's. Layer diets give the hens enough to survive and produce but not enough to give their offspring the full complement necessary so chicks bred from hens on layer diets often have a variety of leg disorders which can be treated with B vitamin supplementation in feed or water.

It won't straighten the foot obviously (unless this is something novel I've never seen before) but it should speed healing and help with a whole bunch of potential issues.
Best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

Oh, also, if the chick has multiple toe genetics in either of the parents, you can end up with all sorts of skewed bone structure in the legs and feet even if there are no extra toes on the chick. Different issue but similar outcome, somewhat anyway.

Depending on how much the chick is struggling to get around and whether or not the others are aggressive to it, I would keep it with the others, otherwise you will possibly end up with an ostracized outsider they will not re-accept as one of the flock.

Some chicks are normal baby chickens with not a thought of doing violence to one another, but some are quick to begin testing their bullying inclinations out on victims. If they are so inclined, it only gets worse the older they get, and the longer that chick is separate from them. I would just provide more feeding stations. But that all does depend on how the chick is coping.

Also the B vitamin deficiency as well as all other deficiencies can occur in isolation, as in you see one individual among an apparently healthy group showing symptoms; very common since individual ability to absorb and process nutrients differs, among other reasons. I don't think this is at all what you have, just mentioning it for future reference in case you didn't know; one thing that commonly happens on the forum is that someone refuses to consider it a possibility that their chooks have a virus, or a toxicant in the environment, or deficiency issues, or some other problem among their flock, just because not all animals are reacting the same. Well, that issue happens no matter what species is being discussed, on this forum and others.

Best wishes.

 

[Chickaletta8]

The Chick is smaller still that the others but has been placed in a separate area close to food. It walks with it's leg kicked out and sleeps a lot. I have it in a splint now. I will give it a week, if no improvement I will remove the splint and let it compensate.

 

[chooks4life]

What sort of splint? One to hold its legs close together? Like a bandaid connecting the legs?

Yeah sleeping a lot is a sign of suffering in chicks, not good, but normal for cases like this.

Best wishes.

 

[Chickaletta8]

Started today giving my little peep a drop or 2 of poly vi sol. Also have been applying this split on it's little foot. Removed it today to apply a new one and it looks amazing. It appears to be working. The peep in markedly smaller than it's brooder mates. I just continue to hope for the best for this little guy.

 

[chooks4life]

Interesting, thanks for the update. Haven't seen this exact issue before so I will be keen to find out how it goes.

Best wishes to you and the little peep. Or as we used to call them, the little beeps.