help-12 hour old crippled chick--pics

[samara]

Hi guys,

Well I had a successful hatch, 10 out of 10 fertile developing chicks hatched (8 were either infertile or didn't do much).

One of the ten was one that had a hard time hatching, now I can see that it is crippled! one club like foot, one whole leg affected. It's feet don't seem to work, it just sits. I just pulled it out of the incubator and found it. Is there hope???

Please respond! want to know what to tell the kids

I just got my photobucket account, so if pics are required let me know.

Samara

 

[hencackle]

Yes, post some pics--the chick could have crooked toes or it might have curled toe paralysis.
Stephanie

 

[samara]

here he is

I don't know if the pics show it, but one leg sticks straight out front, and the other one stays tucked underneath. Neither one seems to work right--when I touch the top of the right leg he cries.

Samara

 

[marie_martin]

One of my new chicks legs are splayed too. One goes out to the side sort of and the other is not as bad but he/she cant stand up. I read on here somewhere about splayed legs. I took yarn and I have tied it on each leg and brought them closer together and he/she can now stand up. They say that after a few days, it will improve if you keep the legs closer together like that. There are different ways to do it. Search online for "splayed leg chick". Good luck with your baby. Here is a picture of mine before putting the yarn on.

Hope it gets better. And I hope yours does too. Keep us posted on what you try and if it works.

marie

 

[silkiechicken]

Hmm... your chick seems to have more than splayed legs... Personally I would cull.. but if you want to try, I would do the splayed legs treatment and make a cardboard cutout to straighten the does on both feet. Good luck.

 

[hencackle]

Samara--I am posting a link that show splayed legs and the bandaid treatment.
http://www.poultryhelp.com/spraddle.html
You can try to straighten the toes by making a "shoe" from a piece of cardboard or a plastic lid and taping the toes to the shoe as silkiechicken suggested.

I have a hunch that there is a nutritional deficiency as well. If you decide to help the chick, I would also add some water-soluble vitamins to the chick's water--make sure that the B vitamins are included. If you can't get this at the feed store, maybe caged bird vitamins from a pet store can be used. I know some people have used children's liquid vitamins but I'm not sure about the dosage.
Stephanie

 

[jimnjay]

Its a judgement call on weather to cull or not. Many people have used the treatment mentioned in the link above with good results. I like to give them a chance. You have to ask yourself if you are going to be able to deal with a handicapped chicken if the treatment does not work. Will you be able to cull after the time spent trying to fix it. Will this one chick make a difference in your overall chicken experience. It is a good time to evaluate what your goals and objectives are in haveing chickens. Its hard but we do find ourselves in a position to have to give up some of the birds we hatch eventually because of health or too many roosters or the economics involved in the size of our flock.
Good luck with your decision and I feel you will make the right one for YOU.

 

[hencackle]

I agree with jimnjay in that your decision is the right one for you.
Last year, one of my hens hatched 3 chicks. When I went to check on her and the chicks, BlackJack was walking around with the first 2 and left the last one in the nest. I decided BlackJack knew something wasn't right otherwise she would have stayed with it until it's down dried. I didn't do anything to save the chick so I left it alone to die. This wasn't my hen's first attempt in raising chicks and I put my trust in her intuition.
Stephanie

 

[marie_martin]

Silkiechicken, I am not sure if you were referring to me about there being something more wrong than splayed legs?? But my chick is doing great. I put yarn on her legs and I am going to leave it for a couple days then bring them in a bit more and so on. She is up on her legs and her feet straightened out too. I think sometimes things happen in the wild that if there had been someone there to help, the chick or other animal would have made it. It is a judgment call but I am one who has to at least try. If they don't make it or have to be put down later, then at least I tried. As long as they are not in pain. That would be different. Good luck with your chick. Keep us posted.

Marie

 

[TJ]

Quote:
Yeah but, what if that lil' chick could've made it with just a lil' help on your part? Nature's intuition is based strictly on survival of the fittest...sometime's they could use a lil' help from us. I couldn't of done what you did, you are obviously a much stronger person than I...

Anyway, what a sad lil' story...

TJ