I think I have a disabled chick (with PICS)

[rainnotebook]

For anyone who is following this:

Two days later and Malin is still alive and alert as every. Sure does have a mouth on him though.

Today he actually has learned to walk on his own... with his knees and wings. I saw him walking around today and I'm just so proud of him. I'm still giving him sugar water and trying to feed him yogurt since I haven't actually seem him eat feed. But he throws a fit when I feed him the yogurt. Its hilarious! I'm SO very proud of him and I hope he continues to progress to a strong healthy chicken!

 

[Tikka]

Go Malin!

 

[MissJenny]

Hooray for Malin!! Hooray for you!!! His "knees" look a little raw. I would either want him on something softer, like paper towels or put band-aids on his legs so he can't crawl like that. (I am guessing that's the "Mommy" in me.

Have you tried to mix his starter with the yogurt to make a sort of soft mash? And have you given him Children's Liquid Poly-Vi-Sol WITHOUT iron? I add a drop or two to a small cap of water.

It's always the little helpless one's that we attach to -- something about human nature. I am hoping Malin will do just fine -- it looks like he wants to at least try and that's half of it, isn't it?

Best of Luck with Malin!
Jenny

 

[rainnotebook]

His knees are actually how he's getting around. Not sure if bandaids would help or make it worse. I'm letting him do what he wants to do. He's using his wings to balance himself so he can ''stand up''. I have been using papertowels to be a more padded area to walk on.

I haven't tried mixing the yogurt with the mash so we'll see how he likes that. What is that children medicine exactly and what does it do?

We do become connected... I promised Malin if he tried to stay alive I would take care of him. Silly I know but I love my chickens!

 

[Spinster_Sister]

i had the same issue with my buff orph.........get some poly visol vitamins with no iron.......add some to his water and swirl some into yogurt and feed him directly a few times a day.....it has worked miracles!

 

[rainnotebook]

Quote:
How do you "force" them to eat it when they don't want to?

 

[rainnotebook]

So I decided to take some pictures of Malin "walking" He is SO adorable and I'll say it again... I'm SO proud of him!

Isn't he ADORABLE?!

 

[BLaBauve]

Aw, he is so cute! I'll keep my fingers crossed for him!

 

[rainnotebook]

Isn't he? Thanks! I appreciate EVERYONE'S support!

 

[lemurchaser]

So cute! But walking on his joints like that will cause a lot of problems down the road. Can you straighten those joints with your hand at all? I would splint them and keep working on getting the joint straighter so he can use his feet. Walking on joints that way can cause wounds that lead to infected joints which are very painful and can lead to sepsis and death. I would wrap the leg with a cotton gauze pad, then apply a popsicle stick and tape in on above and below the joint.

These guys have pretty malleable joints at this age, and the joint may fuse still, but you really don't want it to fuse where its at.