How often to feed and water a chick with straddle leg and curled toes?

[sunflowa20]

Hi all

I am a bit new to this and have trawled the forums and google trying to get as much info as possible, but I am a bit stuck here now.

We had a chick that had a long and difficult hatch. The poor little fighter came out a bit worse for wear and looks to me like its a bit of straddle leg and had a curled toe. I have taped its legs together using vet rap and made a little shoe for the curled foot. It's been improving and is really eating and drinking with gusto. It is still not steady enough to leave with water in case it falls over and drowns.
BUT, I could also do with getting some sleep soon, so how often should I be taking it out and getting it to drink and eat? I have left food in the brooder where it is but no water. It's in the same brooder as 2 other chicks that hatched just fine, but I do have it separated out in "chicken jail" to avoid pecking etc.

 

[CurlyQuail]

I don’t have an answer to your original question, but I do have some suggestions. If you have little marbles that go in vases, those work great for unstable chicks. You put some in the water so they can stick their beak between but not fall in the water. Also, you could give them watermelon as that keeps them hydrated and, again, there’s no chance of drowning

 

[Rammy]

I agree about putting marbles in the water base so it cant fall in but can drink from it. People with quail chicks do that because they tend to do that.

 

[sunflowa20]

That's super thank you!