Fixing Sprattle Legged Chicks

[shesell]

WOOhOOO to everyone here in BYC who EVER listed an article about a newborn chick born sprattle-legged! Our baby was born in the worst way and within a few hours was eating and , sort of, hopping around! The flexible bandaid hobble splint worked wonders. We still had to kind of force feed the water and the food at regular intervals. He was hungry but needed a little encouragement. After I dipped his beek a couple of times in the water, he was so excited, "oh, great!! Water!" Now full grown and handsome, he still has a little hammer toe on each foot, but it doesn't keep him from being all he can be. Thanks to all you BYC Orthopedists!
Sheila

 

[feathers4fun]

Quote:
Way to go!

Amazing what can happen with just a tiny bit of help. We recently had to assist newly hatched turkeys, one with a splint the other with duct tape!! DH just rolled his eyes when he saw me coming with duct tape but it worked.

 

[Blue_Myst]

That's wonderful news!

It's great to see the wealth of information on this site put to good use.

I personally haven't had to deal with sprattle leg yet. . . . but I know where to go if I ever have to!

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Reposting this from another thread. Works great and is SOOOOOO much easier than the bandaid.

Wanted to give an alternative idea to taping the chicks legs in treating spraddle leg. I have two chicks that each had one very slightly spraddled leg. It wasn't bad and might well have not needed treatment, but I always choose to treat it for a few days.

I've never found taping the legs to be very easy, especially with feather legged chicks like my silkies. I came up with 2 alternatives and the pictures are below.

In the first are white legs bands for chicks. You can find these online. They are the kind that unroll and roll onto the chicks legs. The second are small elastic bands also used for banding chicks. You can also use baby braid rubber bands and double them if they are too big.

It's pretty self explanatory with the pics, but basically you make a hobble and then put it on the chick. I really prefer the elastic bands because they are much easier to make and put on the chick but both work equally well. You do need to remember to check them a couple of times a day for tightness and remove them after 4-5 days.

The one chick has a very slightly rolled outer toe so it's also wearing magic shoes. They will come off tomorrow. They just run around the brooder just like the other chicks.