I need some spraddle leg advice

[kinnip]

The keet I've been treating for spraddle leg is doing better. Seeing as how the poor thing couldn't even stand or sit reliably, it's an improvement. I'm concerned about one leg that flares out at the hock. Should I just be patient, keep taping and wait for it to straighten out. Should I be applying a splint of some sort? Scooter just isn't using it like it's meant to be used.

 

[MissPrissy]

It could be a slipped tendon but it also could be a deformity that can't be fixed. Of the numerous guineas I hatched so far 4 of them had spraddle leg - they were not from my own stock but shipped eggs - 2 of them had a truned out foot I could never fix. I ended up having to cull them.

 

[kinnip]

Thanks MissPrissy, but you were supposed to say everything will be fine. Scooter's legs will be so functional that she can ride a tiny bicycle, and later this week it will be raining puppy dogs and ice cream cones.

 

[wegotchickens]

Sorry Kinip, but Miss Prissy isn't known for blowing sunshine up anybodies pipe dreams

Really, though, sorry about your keet. I've had to cull a bird I've tended and cuddled that had to bad a defect to overcome and it is NO FUN AT ALL. You have my sympathies. :aww

 

[wpbfjr]

Quote:
i'm on the verge of this... even knew i'd have to cull as i cuddled and nursed the 2 mo old...

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
i'm on the verge of this... even knew i'd have to cull as i cuddled and nursed the 2 mo old...

It's hard to give up hope. Plus you see them skittering along and you want to believe that maybe they don't know they're disabled, that maybe in their own way they're happy. It's not easy to make those hard decisions

 

[verthandi]

Okay, make room, here comes one of the biggest saps of the chicken world. The turned out at the hock or even higher are the ones that I have not been able to fix. Just a normal spraddle seems to respond well to taping the legs together. Vet wrap works great for this.

That being sad, I have a year old showgirl(boy) with a severely turned out leg, foot is a pretty useless mangle of claw. Pogo has no idea he is disabled, he lives with his showgirl hen and treats her well. He can go down the barn aisle faster then the other chickens, even if he wobbles off balance now and then. Perfectly happy critter. He thinks he's really "the Man".

Would I try to keep one like him alive again? I can say I probably wouldn't...and probably shouldn't have, but something makes me think I would try to heal one like him all over again.

 

[kinnip]

Quote:
That's a good honest answer. It's hard to get there without experiencing it. I've decided to do what I can to keep Scooter alive. She/he can live in the house in a diaper if need be, it's not as if things can become more "unnatural" at this point. In a year I may feel like you do, I really can't say right now. Right now, I just don't have enough negative feedback from the chick to make that decision. I'm sure it will be a matter of future discussion.

 

[verthandi]

Can Scooter hop at all or get around some? I taped and worked on Pogo's for months. Sometimes it would look like it was getting better, so I wouldn't give up trying. Keep an eye out for droppings building up on their keel and butt, I have to trim Pogo's pretty regularly or wash him off.....which he hates.

 

[kinnip]

Scooter gets around pretty well. I think it looks worse than it is. Sometimes he/she totally surprise me and makes a big jump-- like 10" up onto the sofa arm. Scooter may have the last laugh yet. I have the legs taped up and it's worked some. From what I've read about spraddle leg in avians in general, it can take up to 30 days in tape before it corrects itself. I don't think the leg that's turned out at the hock will ever be straight, but when I take the tape off, she can kinda hobble around. My main concern now is what to do with her. It's become apparent that the other keets would like her dead and I don't expect the big chickens to react differently. DBF says that if she survives, she can wear a diaper and live inside. Actually his exact words were, "If she survives honey, you can do whatever you want with her." The cats are really freaking me out though. It's like they know she's crippled and they want to eat her. I think that'll change when she's as big as they are. She hasn't stopped eating and drinking, so I have no reason to think she'll be runty. I've been feeding poly-vi-sol, I think, most of it seems to be on me. Why can't they make that stuff a little more palatable, bleck!?!