- May 14, 2014
- 3
- 1
- 9
I have a chick I received from the neighbors, as they had more than they could handle -- I think she (or he, but let's keep it simple and stick to one gender designation) is about 3 weeks old (that was their estimate), but if so it must be a small breed (I'm not sure, but she looks a bit like an Easter-egger).
Unfortunately, she came to me with spraddle legs. Since her legs would sometimes splay back and othertimes forwards and she wasn't really thriving, I thought it best to take her to a vet to be sure my diagnosis was right before I proceeded (though in her greatest moment of distress, I band-aided her legs, and it made an enormous improvement, until it fell off).
The vet confirmed that it was definitely spraddle legs, but offered a solution I hadn't seen before: he bound her legs above the knee to a roll of tape. (This vet specializes in birds and said he uses this method regularly on various species.) The problem with his system was that she kept falling over on her head because her lower legs still splayed outwards, wore down off her belly where the tape roll rubbed, and got a sore on her knee from the tape binding chafing.
I felt so bad for her that when we took the blasted contraption off for an exercise session, I decided to switch to tape hobble treatment afterwards (bandaids don't stick long on this little one, who seems to like resting in her water, it seems, and with the tape, I could aim the alignment better for her size). The thing is, when she was practicing walking without tape roll or hobbles, her toes went from pointing and sliding outwards to now pointing slightly inwards. By the end of the session, she looked tired and her legs started slipping out sideways as they had before, so we stopped and tape-hobbled her, and she's getting around pretty well now (staying up off her knees most of the time, walking from here to there as she likes, hardly any falling over).
My concern is that her toes still seem to point slightly inwards. This seems a dramatic change from two days ago, when everything pointed outwards all the time. Could the vet's tape roll have over-corrected something? Do I need to be very concerned, or should I suppose that with continued hobbling and physical therapy, her feet will find their way to a good position? (I have also found her perching on the edge of her water dish, which has about a half-inch rim -- part of me loves to see her perching-instincts kicking in to counteract the strange contortions of her feet with that awful tape-roll, since that really just kept knocking her over in every direction but comfortable, but part of me is worried it's aggravating the whole pointing inwards thing, since it's a round dish.)
Any advice from those with more experience? Thanks in advance!
Unfortunately, she came to me with spraddle legs. Since her legs would sometimes splay back and othertimes forwards and she wasn't really thriving, I thought it best to take her to a vet to be sure my diagnosis was right before I proceeded (though in her greatest moment of distress, I band-aided her legs, and it made an enormous improvement, until it fell off).
The vet confirmed that it was definitely spraddle legs, but offered a solution I hadn't seen before: he bound her legs above the knee to a roll of tape. (This vet specializes in birds and said he uses this method regularly on various species.) The problem with his system was that she kept falling over on her head because her lower legs still splayed outwards, wore down off her belly where the tape roll rubbed, and got a sore on her knee from the tape binding chafing.
I felt so bad for her that when we took the blasted contraption off for an exercise session, I decided to switch to tape hobble treatment afterwards (bandaids don't stick long on this little one, who seems to like resting in her water, it seems, and with the tape, I could aim the alignment better for her size). The thing is, when she was practicing walking without tape roll or hobbles, her toes went from pointing and sliding outwards to now pointing slightly inwards. By the end of the session, she looked tired and her legs started slipping out sideways as they had before, so we stopped and tape-hobbled her, and she's getting around pretty well now (staying up off her knees most of the time, walking from here to there as she likes, hardly any falling over).
My concern is that her toes still seem to point slightly inwards. This seems a dramatic change from two days ago, when everything pointed outwards all the time. Could the vet's tape roll have over-corrected something? Do I need to be very concerned, or should I suppose that with continued hobbling and physical therapy, her feet will find their way to a good position? (I have also found her perching on the edge of her water dish, which has about a half-inch rim -- part of me loves to see her perching-instincts kicking in to counteract the strange contortions of her feet with that awful tape-roll, since that really just kept knocking her over in every direction but comfortable, but part of me is worried it's aggravating the whole pointing inwards thing, since it's a round dish.)
Any advice from those with more experience? Thanks in advance!
Last edited:
