hurt leg.. to splint or not to splint? (turkey)

[cupman]

I have this turkey with a hurt leg. He is 5 weeks old. He can walk to his food and water but he moves really slow. When he's not eating/drinking he usually just lays in the same spot and doesn't move. I'm afraid his leg will get stuck if he doesn't ever move it but then again I really don't know much about this stuff. I have heard people say to make a split but that makes me worry about the possibility it will cause it to heal funky.

The leg doesn't appear to be broken, In fact I'm positive it isn't. Would a splint even help him or is that only for breaks? It just seems to pain him to put pressure on it or when he tries to walk.

Thanks

 

[Netherfieldmom]

I will just say that we had a hen who had been stepped on by a horse (we think). It was definitely broken. We used duct-tape and popsicle sticks. We wrapped the leg with a couple layers of gauze (no broken skin, btw), then duct tape and a stick on each side. There was no place where the tape was sticking to skin. We folded the tape in half, so no sticky side on skin, anywhere. Anyway, she still laid down, probably for almost 2 weeks. We would put her out in sun, under our birdfeeder, then move her to shade. She ate and drank, but not moving. Then one day, she got up and started hobbling around. Still rested a lot. We still moved her around, completely monitored her during day, putting her inside in a crate at night. This went on for about six weeks. It was clear that she was improving. We went ahead and removed splint at that point. We should have kept it on a little longer, I think. She always had a knot on that leg, where the bone had knit together. But she lived happily, many more years. We were very glad we did it.