HELP!2 month old chick with broken leg

[txhsmom]

Hi all, I brought home a chick from the stable where me daughter rides. I am not sure as to breed, her mom is large and golden red. They think a horse stepped on her leg. She has a "splint" of sorts with duct tape holding it on. I took her home 'cause she looked in misery and was hot, could not reach food or water. The people there admitted they did not know what to do.
SO, I do not want to take the "wrap" off and try to help her until I get some help/advice. I have treated a squirrel with a broken leg, but am not sure what to do here. The break is high up by her hip.
Help please, Robin

 

[ruth]

If the break is in her thigh bone you only thing you can try and do is to set the bone as cleanly and evenly as possible and wrap tightly and wait and pray that it heals. Vetwrap is a great stretchy wrap that sticks to itself and comes off easily when ready to remove. If it were set well enough and wrapped thickly it may heal. I would give it a try.

Also, keep her separated in small confined area with food and water so that she won't be running around on it or walking any more than necesarry. A cat carrier would work well.

 

[txhsmom]

Thank you for the reply. I need to take off the duct tape they put on, and I am concerned about hurting her in the process. I am very farmiliar with vet wrap, we use it on my daughter's horse. Should I give her any yogurt or cal supplements? Thank you, Robin

 

[threehorses]

You can try her on the yogurt. It'll help with the stress and add some calcium/vitamin D/phosphorus in the right amounts.

Of course, feed her pellets. If she won't eat them, try making 'crumbles' of them in the blender. Mine love crumbles even if they're just pellets that they're used to. Who knows why?

The bone usually takes 10 days or so to mend. Sometimes it takes longer for them to rehab afterwards. Try to limit the amount of moving around she does. Do you think they set it well?

If you reset it, paint sticks (split in half and cut to length) work well as splints as do popsicle sticks. I put gauze first, then the sticks, then just enough strips of duct tape to hold the sticks in place. (The gauze pads the hard leg from the stick being too hard on it.) Then vet wrap. The vetwrap breathes really nicely. (I have horses, too - love that stuff!)

Look for swelling above or below the bone, blackening, smell the area for a bad smell. Try to keep it as stable as possible. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to use an appropriate antibiotic in case of infection (Penicillin or baytril, with probiotics used daily as well as 2 weeks every other day after treatment).

On the ducks that I've had of similar weight and bone structure that broke their legs, the leg set in about 10 days, it took about three weeks in a slightly larger cage for them to learn to use the leg again. In all it took at least three months before you couldn't notice any limp ever. It was about the same for our big goose. Two of them were the lower leg between the food and "hock" (the tibia). One duck was in the femur. (The bone above the hock).

 

[txhsmom]

Thank you, she is not walking. She scoots for lack of a better word. I have her in a smaller home and will try yhe yogurt today. Dose fllavor matter? I allways use plain for my rehab critters,it woeks great for squirrels. I will try to take off the duct tape, there is nothing under it. Is it ok to remove feathers to do this?

 

[threehorses]

Plain is perfect, actually. On the duct tape and feathers - ouch. I'd just get some cuticle scissors and cut away as you go.

I just noticed you live in Houston. So do I.

Small world - a lot more Houston poultry fanciers than I realized there were on here. Neat! Maybe if we all put our minds to it, we can get some rain heading our way.

 

[txhsmom]

Amen to the RAIN!!!
I noticed you have horses as well. We have an Arab gelding.
I "reset" the hens leg. It was not fun getting all the duct tape off, and I did cut alot of feathers . The break was right above her "ellbow" and they had splinted it so it stuck straight out. I resplinted it at a more natural angle and she is now walking. I made the mistake of offering her watermelon before the yogurt and she did'nt want to eat it. So she got watermelon with yogurt sauce! My plan is to keep her for the nest 10 days and then return her. Thank you all for your help.

 

[threehorses]

Oh that's great that she's walking! Wonderful! Yeah sounds like they did a botch job on splinting. I'm glad you took her in hand.

And hey - we got rain, too, today. Of course it was because I had 14 bags of feed sitting in the back of my truck.

We got it loaded just before the first drops fell, but it was all lights and noise for the 15 minutes it took us to dump it!

Sure felt good. I have three quarterhorses, a lifelong horse lover. Arabs are wonderful! I've had one before and she was very intelligent and sensitive as well as beautiful. They're a lovely breed!

The watermelon with yogurt sauce sounds good to me. I think I"ll go make a quick smoothie. lol

Good job on the mending! I'd love to hear an update. Cheers!

 

[ruth]

Great job on resetting her leg. Keep it wrapped and she should heal nicely and have a good working leg later. Just keep her off it as much as possible in the meantime.