how do I get chicks feet uncurled?

[peafowlmom]

they are curled up, they were splayed legged also put tape on them still having some difficulty. 2 of my chicks are like this

 

[aoxa]

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry
This helped me out. Chick shoes for curled toes, and hobbles for splayed leg.

Didn't have good results with splayed leg. The chick died. It couldn't balance properly - and it couldn't eat/drink without assistance.

 

[dusky]

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKRaisingChicks.html
http://poultryhelp.com/spraddle.html

This has great pictures too, scroll down a bit. I had a chick with curled toes on both feet and splayed legs. I hobbled him up but he couldn't stay upright so I tucked him into a 'nest' of a sock curled around him (not inside the sock) so he'd stay upright. He had wry neck so he was harder to feed (had to use a spoon and mush ). Since they grow fast (and he'd get out of his hobbles!) I had to re-do them about three times before it was the just right distance to keep his legs apart. At that point he was running around like a champ. Taping the toes was a pain also, but I imagine peachicks are bigger so it'll be easier (I was dealing with the tiniest chicken toes here!). I used the pipe cleaner 'shoe' with some medical cloth tape. The shoe would get kicked off or slip to a bad angle in a day, so I had to re-adjust them every day also. Be careful when removing the tape, it's strong and will peel scales/injure the bird. I used a little bit of coconut oil to ease it off, but i think any oil would work (they recommend baby oil). Then clean it up so the next new tape can stick. His toe started straightening out one by one, so in the end I used just tape around the middle toe to keep it straight. it'll be hard holding a squirmy chick and doing this, so if someone can hold them for you it'd be a HUGE help. For the hobble I used sports wrap, it's that weird textured stuff that can stick to itself. I cut out a 3/4 inch. strip, attached it to the legs, then reinforced it with strips of strong bandaid because it was slipping.

I have to point out that the chicks need time to get used to the hobble. They'll fall flat on their faces and it'll be just awful to watch. I would support them upright/restrict them to an area (either the sock donut or chick chair), until they get the hang of standing upright (takes about a day! Then they 'll be hobbling around just fine). Keep them separated from the others, and don't use a waterer - they might drown. I used a bottle cap of water.




After this last picture I taped the big toe one last time. My chick's toes are all straight now, though the middle one is just slightly at an angle (even less so than in the above picture). Most people wouldn't notice now.

I think most chicks with splayed legs or toes have good healthy appetites and behave normally, so I doubt you'll need to spoon feed like I had to. This chick was stuck in the shell for two days, and when he hatched out part of his stomach was also exposed so I had to leave him in the incubator until it healed over. Then there was the wry neck so his head was always down and he wasn't interested in food. I treated that with polyvisol vitamins in his water.

Good luck!

 

[feeding frenzy]

sounds like the chick has serious birth defects. Did you buy this chick or was he bred from your own flock?

 

[zazouse]

sounds like the chick has serious birth defects. Did you buy this chick or was he bred from your own flock?

The only time i have chicks with foot problems is when they have taken to long to hatch in the incubator, foot problems in chicks hatched by their mom is rare around here so i do not believe it is a birth defect.
PS i hatch 1000's a year sometimes and my hens hatch all year long so if it were a birth defect i believe i would see it more than a couple times a year if it were a birth defect.

 

[peafowlmom]

i bred them, I think it was an incubation problem, only 1 silkie wouldn't leave her "shoes" alone, so we culled the chick, and all the rest, peachicks and others were fixed just fine and are quite healthy

 

[kuntrygirl]

I've noticed leg and toe problems from some of the birds that I incubate. I never have leg and toe problems under broody hens.

 

[MinxFox]

This 2012 breeding season I had my first problem with this, with peachicks. I made shoes and everything but they would jump in the water dish and the shoes would come off.

One of the chicks just had one toe that was crooked off to the side, the other was soo horrible. I think it did have splayed leg and a hole mess of problems. That poor chick couldn't take care of itself and kept getting poopy but and I finally just took it out in the middle of the woods and set it down and walked away. It was too much sadness for me. The other chick with just one bad toe kept taking off the shoes so I just left it alone and as the chick grew it's toe grew into the right place and you could never tell it had a crooked toe. I was wondering if my incubator was too warm or something... It did seem like the peachicks took a long time to hatch... It was then that I decided I do want to stick with letting the peahens hatch out the chicks. I don't want to hatch out a ton of chicks anyways, and my peahens are so good at hatching their eggs that I decided to just do that...Maybe someday I might hatch a few in the incubator just so I can have more extremely friendly peas like Peep, but mainly I am letting the peahens hatch their own eggs.

 

[zazouse]

This 2012 breeding season I had my first problem with this, with peachicks. I made shoes and everything but they would jump in the water dish and the shoes would come off.

One of the chicks just had one toe that was crooked off to the side, the other was soo horrible. I think it did have splayed leg and a hole mess of problems. That poor chick couldn't take care of itself and kept getting poopy but and I finally just took it out in the middle of the woods and set it down and walked away. It was too much sadness for me. The other chick with just one bad toe kept taking off the shoes so I just left it alone and as the chick grew it's toe grew into the right place and you could never tell it had a crooked toe. I was wondering if my incubator was too warm or something... It did seem like the peachicks took a long time to hatch... It was then that I decided I do want to stick with letting the peahens hatch out the chicks. I don't want to hatch out a ton of chicks anyways, and my peahens are so good at hatching their eggs that I decided to just do that...Maybe someday I might hatch a few in the incubator just so I can have more extremely friendly peas like Peep, but mainly I am letting the peahens hatch their own eggs.

Soory about your chick but you did the best thing .

What ever happen with this baby and the knot did you ever figure out what it was?

 

[MinxFox]

I think it was just a bug bite that got too big or something....It scabbed over and the swelling went down and now I don't even know which peachick had it. I think it was just from the insane ammount of musquitos we had.