Help Please! Sick Chick? or Injured Chick? (w/Pictures)

With a leg or foot injury, suspected injury, or malformation, I use a chick chair or a sling. Chairs are usually for peeps, and yours looks to be sling size. You can make a chair for a larger chicken (a chair is a little hammock in a box, where the chicken hangs in the box (which supports the hammock), and there is food and water within reach. A sling's the same principle, but often easier to make, especially if your "hospital cage" or dog crate has holes in the top. I make my slings out of an piece of fabric (any kind of fabric, you can use old clothes if you want). The main idea is an "H" with real long arms and legs. The chicken rests in the short part of the "H" (you cut this about 1 & 1/2 times as wide as the chicken) and the arms and legs of the "H" tie above its head to make a little sling. I just tie the ties on one side together & do the same on the other side - otherwise, if you tie them all at the center, you won't be able to adjust it as easy and your chicken might be able to twist herself around. With the finished sling, your chicken is like the filling in a taco - secure on bottom and sides, and only really able to face one direction. And that's where the food and water goes. Always trim the area by her bottom so the poop does not just fall in the sling. If she gets uppity & tries to get out, you can pin a cover piece of fabric snug on top to keep her in the sling. I have also found that it is sometimes easier to slit 4 - 8" of each arm and leg of the "H" lengthwise, creating two ties where there was one. Then you can tie each corner to the cage/crate ceiling separately, allowing for maximum flexibility in height and positioning of chicken in the sling. This works well for very large chickens. And I don't sew the sling - once it's done, it's trash, b/c make one for each occasion as needed. There are different kinds of slings, and you can see some examples of these and chick chairs by doing a google image search for them. Hope this helps!
 
Her crop may be full from eating and just hasn't passed through yet because she isn't as active as other hens. If it still feels full and hard in the morning after not eating it may be impacted. I'm sure you handled her sore leg fine. Resting her leg is probably what she needs right now so I wouldn't worry about a crutch or splint just yet. What about using a bag of frozen peas to ice her leg for 20 mins and you could give her 1/2 a baby asprin with yogurt ?
 
Tiny chicks can have baby aspirin? The kind people take? Or is there a chicken version? She's pretty small. She's only 5 and a half weeks old.
 
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Thank you! Good information here.

OK... I have a sling cut out of an old T-shirt. I'm terrified to put her in it. I don't want to hurt her at all. I'm so worried about my little baby. I hope I cut it to the right size so she doesn't have any bad pressure points.

I'll see if I can get her to take some olive oil - one of those links suggested drizzling it on bread. Does that sound right? I don't have a dropper on hand.

We put her hospital kennel facing the kennel the other two birds are in. The other two were going bonkers. She tried walking as soon as she saw them but finally seemed to settle down. Aaagh! This is so difficult and scary when you're a newbie.
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Here she is when I was checking her crop and bum leg. I'm allergic to chickens... so I have to wear a respirator when I'm around them.

LL
 
How is she doing tonight?

She's sleeping. When she was awake, she couldn't walk at all - she hopped on one leg. She's on a thick bed of shredded newspaper covered by a towel (to keep her from eating newspaper). She has been pooping lots of sandy poop, so, hopefully stuff is working it's way through her. If she still can't walk in the morning, but continues to try, we'll put her in the sling I made for her and see how that goes.
 
The nest day I would feel her crop. If it still feels full, massage it a bit and give her a little oil on bread or in yogurt. If it still seems full a few hours later tell us. One of my young pullets (around your hens age) started to limp. I gave her geritol tonic. It is full of vitamins. I put a little bit in her water. I also feed her LOTS of yogurt. Try that. In a week or two she was walking!
 
The nest day I would feel her crop. If it still feels full, massage it a bit and give her a little oil on bread or in yogurt. If it still seems full a few hours later tell us. One of my young pullets (around your hens age) started to limp. I gave her geritol tonic. It is full of vitamins. I put a little bit in her water. I also feed her LOTS of yogurt. Try that. In a week or two she was walking!
I found out on a chicken site that geritol was good for her.
 

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