Help With Chick Deformities

[Blue]

I received a batch of day-old cochin and wyandotte chicks this morning. All were active and eating and drinking normally when I put them in the brooder, but when I began looking at them closely, I became a bit worried about two of the cochins.

One has a couple curled, fused and webbed toes on each foot. He (or she) seems to be able to walk but is a bit wobbly.

The other chick has one eye that won't open; the eye is there (and it's bulging), but the eyelid won't open. I tryed gently prying the eyelid open with my fingers to get a look at the eye, but the eyelid seems like it is fused shut. It's other eye appears normal.

Has anyone else ever dealt with a situation similar to either of these? Is there anything that I can do for them, or do I just need to take a wait and see approach? So far, both are eating and drinking normally and seem otherwise healthy. The one with the bad feet even pinched me when I tried to pick it up (that's got me thinking it's a roo) and then jumped into the water dish.

I can't post pics right now because I'm at work, but I'll try to get some when I get home.

 

[SLWyandotte]

if they are hatchery birds i would guess that it is mutation caused by inbreeding. the more inbreed the more mutations. another consideration is the number of chickens hatched each day some 1:10,000 or something will be deformed regardless of any outside effects. thats evolution even if most mutations are bad and usually kill the animal with it. in this case i'd wait and see.

i got 25 straight run silver laced wyandottes from a hatchery and 2 had mutations. one never feathered out right and another had a problem standing. he could walk and run, he just couldn't stand in one spot. he had to sit down. also i have 2 hens with single combs. thats probably from another breed somewhere down the line but it's still not suppose to be there.

 

[Blue]

Quote:
I was actually surprised there were deformities because they aren't hatchery birds. I ordered them from a reputable breeder a few hours away from where I live. I've seen people on here have great luck with hatching eggs from the same breeder, so I don't really know what happened. I guess mutations like that just happen sometimes. I don't think there is any inbreeding in the line besides maybe line breeding, but I don't know that for sure. I did have one hatchery order from earlier in the summer where one of the chicks was missing toenails; maybe I just got lucky with my hatchery birds because out of 17, only that one had any deformities at all.

 

[Blue]

UPDATE: The chick with the eye problem can now partially open its eye, but the eye is still bulging. Could it be an injury during shipping (it got pecked maybe?) and not a deformity as I'd first thought? Is there an ointment or something I could put on the eye to help? I tried wiping it out with a damp wash cloth earlier. As for the chick with the deformed feet, it seems to be walking just as well as the other chicks now, so I guess I'll just see how it gets around as it matures.

Sadly, I also lost one chick today. It wasn't deformed/injured, but had been much more lethargic than the other chicks, and while I saw it eat and drink, it also seemed to sleep much more than the others, so maybe it was just too weak from shipping stress (even though it was only in the mail overnight?). I'm kind of disturbed that all of my hatchery chicks are thriving, but my more expensive breeder chicks are having problems. I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes.

 

[HogbackMtnChickns]

Here's a link to information about curled toes.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=72885

One of our chicks had curled toes on one foot. She was wobbly, and fell over a lot. We made the cardboard boot discussed in that link. Our chick wore it for only a day before she kicked it off, but it did the trick. She is 7 weeks old now - and is quite healthy.

 

[Blue]

Quote:
Thanks for the link! Unfortunately, I don't think I can use that advice. The chick I have has one curled toe on each foot, but the toes are also fused at the ends to the toes right next to them (I really need a picture, I guess. It's kind of hard to explain), and the fused toes also have webbing between them. It's very odd. When I first saw it, I thought maybe I could try and cut the toes and webbing apart and straighten the toes, but then I decided that I'd probably do more harm than good if I tried that.