Is there a way to help a chick with a broken leg? Happy pic update!

[Zaxby's2]

Quote:
I had a baby chick with a messed up hock joint. I used a straw that I cut open up the side and slipped it on him. Worked great for him. Not sure if a broken leg would be treated the same. try goggling it and see if you can find some advise. Good luck. ps, I used a regular light bulb for a brooder. just adjusted until I found the right wattage to tempature. just be careful with any light next to card board.

Thanks! I figure the straw idea should work to help set up his leg for healing.

 

[gregnlinda]

I have a hen approximately 13 weeks old. Noticed her limping around the yard yesterday. She is putting some weight on it but still limps. Did some searching today to try and get better idea for treatment. I read about splinting, using drinking straw, hobbling with tape and something called a chick chair, although I found no image or description of that. Looked at her foot and saw no sign of injury. Hope this helps someone else looking for info. Any help in my search would be greatly appreciated

 

[mrsp523]

http://www.peafowl.org/ARTICLES/1/

heres one link, I had found another one after that gave details on the splint routine but I cant find it now. Hope it helps.

 

[gregnlinda]

Thanks for that link! I'd read it earlier today but couldn't find it again. We decided to put our girl in a separate cage for observation. Trying the Achilles tendon treatment. She cried when we put her in the cage, poor thing. Don't want to keep her in there too long. Any suggestions?

 

[Zaxby's2]

I don't know what to tell you about you're hen, but my chicks seem to be doing okay. When I came home from church tonight the temperature in the "brooder" was 88 degrees farinheit, which I think is pretty good considering they are a week and a half old and I think your suposed to keep week old chicks at 90 degrees. I moved the brooder outside, removed the heat lamp but left the pad, and it's 90 degrees in the box! I'll keep it like that I guess. As for the black chick when I put him in the brooder he stood up, but when I gently nudged him he layed back down so he's still not comfortable with using his leg. What can I do? Try the straw thing? Will this help him heal? And how long does it take to heal?

 

[mrsp523]

My daughter gave him two small stuffed animals. he would lean on one just right so it would help support his other leg. Kept him right next to the others so he could hear the others. After a day, we slowly added a few of the others. The mellow ones so he wouldnt be alone. just make sure s/he can get to food and water and give extra tlc!
I tell you I dont know how I spent my time before we started having chickens! We have one sick girl 10 weeks old. We isolated her for a day and gave her lots of tlc. Today we put her out with the other ones so she could roam around. She seemed happier with them, and they would make sure she wasnt far behind, so we put her back in the coop tonight. My year old girls are wondering what the heck is going on. We built on to our coop and have them devided by a screen door so they can see each other.

 

[gregnlinda]

Wish I knew more to be able to help for your specific problem. I'm just learning all this stuff. I've read about hobbling a chick for splayed legs, splinting for bone injuries, greasing the leg with vaseline for scaly leg mites and even a chick chair if you want the chick to not put weight on legs. But I can't figure out what might be the problem, so I'm observing her and will try the treatment for Achilles tendon injury since I see no sign of anything else. Otherwise I'll just have to play it by ear and hope.

 

[gregnlinda]

That is so sweet you're daughter giving him a toy! Sure hope he gets better soon! Yes, it's hard to remember life before chickens! LOL. But I love having them! I would've never imagined I could get so wrapped up in feathered friends! My dogs like them, too. The Boston smiles a lot more now! Hope you'll keep posting your progress! Good luck!

 

[Zaxby's2]

The black chick now stands up and jumps around on one leg(which is funny and sad at the same time) but can easily get to food and water so I think he will be all right. At my house the temperature can reach 100 degrees, so do I need to do anything really besides make sure they don't get too hot? I took the heat lamp out because they didn't need it put left the pad just in case. Oh, and if I gave the black chick a spint how would it help? What does it do? And how long would I need to keep it on there? And what's tlc? Thanks!

 

[Zaxby's2]

We were about to put a splint on him but we couldn't find a broken point. We think it might be a muscular problem. Will this heal on it's own?