Integrating chick with crooked toe/splint

[Figgie]

I hatched swedish flower hens about a week ago and have 6 that were normal and 1 that required assistance out of the shell (I feel I waited too long to intervene, this is the first time I've hatched eggs). The one that needed help out of the shell had curled toes that somewhat straightened out in the first 12 hours but we did end up putting on medical tape "chick shoes" for 24 after that and she's been separated from the rest because they're very rambunctious and were pecking everything at first including eyes so I was worried. I've also been giving poultry cell and additional b12 to ensure bases are covered.

At this point, her little feet are totally straight on the right but on the left the center toe turns over a bit on its side. She will sometimes straighten it to use her talon(claw?) I've been very ill so we were not as aggressive at continually splinting and just tried again over the last two days, this time with a softly wrapped toothpick splint and two pieces of medical tape.

It seems to be helping, but I really want to put her in with the other chicks. She's sweet and spicy, I think she will hold her own. She's growing on target. But I want to keep splinting gently to see if we can get the toe in better position for life.

Do you think it's ok to add her in? Any special considerations? Right now her besties are me and a teddy bear, and some classical music. If it's relevant, all of these chicks are highly socialized to me and very outgoing. The pecking of each other has died down.

 

[Debbie292d]

We've had a few with curled toes here and used thin cardboard like that from a cereal box to make a "shoe", like cut it the shape needed for the toes to be straight, then tape them down with masking tape. Every time we've fixed that in less than a day because we caught it when they were freshly hatched.

Smart to supplement with vitamins!

If you stop now, the harder it's going to get. Try the shoe for 24 hours and see if it doesn't fix that toe. Otherwise, I'm sure she'll live a fine life now that you've fixed the rest of them so she can walk normally. It's up to you.

 

[Project Blue]

Make a "W" out of a pipe cleaner, or several different sized ones to approximate your chick's foot so you won't need to make adjustments when fitting one on. Wrap the chick in a paper towel taped to a table to hold him while your working on him and tape the W on his foot. It helps to have small toe sized strips of tape ready. She should be able to join the rest of the chicks right away. I'd pick the moment you plan to clean the brooder and put the other chicks in a box with a little boring food and water for an hour while letting the W chick explore the brooder herself. Then add really interesting food like mealworms and greens. After that put one chick in at a time. I don't know if this will work at this point for you, since the bones harden pretty quick, but a pipe cleaner W works great for me done right after hatching and I've never needed to separate.

 

[Figgie]

Thank you both. Yes, I'm weighing if there are diminishing returns. Even though the splint was soft and wrapped not tightly, I noticed some slight reddening of places on the toe after just 12 hours in the splint. Thank you for the ideas, I was able to look up some of them on here for visual reference.

Is it likely that the others will attack her splint or will they probably ignore it after some time? Thank you for the tips.

Here are a couple of pictures...hopefully they display well enough. She's standing on my leg at an angle in two and then on the carpet flat in the others. As you can see she does occasionally turn it to be almost correctly positioned. I'm not sure how "bad" this is in the scheme of things.

 

[LaFleche]

In my view this toe does not need any further treatment or splinting, on the contrary, it should be fine and left alone as splinting without actual need can cause severe issues and even lead to necrosis.

Just let the chick join the hatch mates and enjoy their company.

 

[Figgie]

In my view this toe does not need any further treatment or splinting, on the contrary, it should be fine and left alone as splinting without actual need can cause severe issues and even lead to necrosis.

Just let the chick join the hatch mates and enjoy their company.

Thank you! We've been afraid to make that call since we have zero chick expertise.

I appreciate the assessment.