Is there a way to splint this baby chick's crocked leg? *see pic

[landonjacob]

Hello my chicken friends! Need your help again. I just hatched 5 blue ameraucanas and the last one to hatch seems to have some sort of crooked leg. I've seen people splint splayed legs and crooked toes, but not something like this. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[chooks4life]

Hard to say, but that seems like a broken or dislocated knee or hip to me, are you absolutely sure it hatched that way? If it did, there's a chance it's a serious deformity, it's certainly not spraddling caused by genetics, deficiency or injury either.

However it holds its leg up and in the correct position in the second pic, without support --- that's very hopeful.

Looks like a little cockerel, too, but of course very early to be guessing.

In the last pic that's a physically impossible position it's got its leg in, for a normal chook, but I'd guess you know that!

I would put him/her in a little separate area with feed and water, but within plain sight and hearing of the others, and try to restrict its movement for a little while, so it can build strength. Splinting may be useless in this case, very difficult for sure to splint above the knee.

Is it able to stand at all? Can you describe what happens when it tries to move?

Best wishes.

 

[landonjacob]

Thanks for the advice!
Yes, it was definitely born that way. I noticed it couldn't stand up in the incubator and that the leg was "stuck" behind her (if it's a pullet).
She can't stand, but she can waddle around where she needs to. Yesterday I kept picking her up and putting her leg underneath her, if it was behind her that is. Seems like she doesn't keep her leg behind her at all today. When her leg is underneath her her right foot crossed over her left slightly, which I think she trips over when she tries to step.
Thanks again!

 

[chooks4life]

Well, that's more hopeful than not being able to move at all.

The waddling around on the hocks needs to be minimized or it'll cause overcompensation damage to the good leg; the good thing is that this ability to hobble around means the upper leg issue is not a completely crippling one for the whole leg. Babies are very 'plastic' in every way and able to overcome injuries etc adults are far more likely to die from, and overcome them to live long and capable lives as well, as though there had never been an issue at all, in many cases.

He/she needs to be restrained to a small area where it can more or less practice standing and moving slightly for a few days at least, an enclosure that keeps its leg under its body in the correct position, before it tries to cover distances.

The longer it spends doing incorrect movements, the less likely it is that the chick will ever be able to function normally. They can and do learn to move wrongly if left in that state. Their bodies become completely destabilized, muscles and tendons pulling the skeleton out of shape due to unnatural movement patterns and stresses, if they're left to struggle to get around for too long in such a crippled way.

The chick may be able to be rehabilitated, but it will take some time and TLC, and if you're not up to it then killing it is kinder than letting it try to survive without help as it almost certainly won't make it without the right sort of help though it can and likely would struggle on valiantly but vainly for months, even a year, with no hope of ever living a normal life, before succumbing to the progressive damage to health that being so crippled causes.

If you do decide to cull it, it's worth remembering that in future you may end up with a prize breeder or pet chook or other bird with the same type of disability and you won't know how to deal with it, having passed by the chance to learn. It's up to you, whatever your choice is, hope it works out for the best.

There are some good little home made sling or walker blueprints you could rustle up if you look for 'handicapped pet' or similar image search titles on the internet. Giving the chick time to strengthen its ability to stand may help but if you leave it waddling around it's almost certain you'll end up having to put it out of its misery, once the damage is allowed to progress like that it can destroy much more than the one good leg. Time is of the essence with these cases. Poultry Podiatry is another term to search for helpful info.

Best method of killing a chick is ...Possibly distressing to some people so if you don't want to do so, maybe skip this paragraph... Anyway the best method is to rip the head off; unlike almost all other methods it's a simple and instantaneous death, and 100% effective, it's not hard at all to remove a baby chicks' head. Sounds gory but compared to putting them in the freezer, or putting them in a box under tissue and spraying the tissue with toxic aerosols, it's kindest. As long as you're quick about it. Takes very little strength, mainly just some speed. Don't extend the neck to its furthest point before tugging, and don't pull so to speak, just yank really hard and far and fast, holding its body securely in one hand and the head in the other. The head will come off, there will be very little or no blood and no suffering.

Best wishes to you and the little one.

 

[landonjacob]

Thanks again! Your advice is very helpful.
I'm fine with taking a good amount of time to see if we can give this little guy a full and healthy life. We (my wife and I) nursed a chicken back to health from a nasty dog attack, so we're up for the challenge.

I put the chick in a bandaid sling/split earlier today, and the chick was able to stand after a few hours! But the right leg was still turned inward, and she would trip over it when she tried to walk. I'm trying to figure out a harness that will rotate her foot outward. The closest this I came up with was a pipe cleaner apparatus, but she couldn't walk at all. I switch to a brace made from a dense sponge material. We'll see how that works.

I've had to remove bird heads while pigeon hunting, so I'm familiar with the technique. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I agree, that's probably the least painful.

Thanks again!

 

[chooks4life]

Good to hear you'll give it a go.

I think this chook will require spending most of its time in a sling for at least a week. Perhaps with a splint on as well. It's going to take a fair bit of strengthening it before a splint will be anything more than an encumbrance which can cause further damage if the chook is left out of the sling with a splint on.

The sling will be the main thing to help it in all likelihood, and may well be all that is required to rotate the leg outwards, as the muscles strengthen the chook will develop muscle memory concerning balance, leg position etc and will compensate safely over time.

Sounds very promising though, what a rapid reaction. Might be a 'goer'.

I had a rooster once who introduced genetic spraddling, back when I was new to chooks and didn't know the warning signs (misaligned leg scales, very hard to find info on that, even now when I draw people diagrams they're usually like 'what?' and don't get it)... Well, inevitably chicks began hatching with outwards or inwards leg spraddling in both legs usually, sometimes just one, as dictated by the scale patterning. Some took a few days longer to learn to compensate, others over a week, some cried out so often while struggling to compensate that it was obvious that they suffered. Culled that trait out really quickly. Point being though, even with significantly destabilized/misaligned bodies from hatching onwards, deformities as it were, they could and did learn to walk and after that bad start you'd never pick them from normal chooks.

Best wishes.

 

[landonjacob]

Thanks so much! Could you possibly find a pick of a splint that would help rotate the leg? I can't think of a design that would help.

 

[chooks4life]

Thanks so much! Could you possibly find a pick of a splint that would help rotate the leg? I can't think of a design that would help.

I don't yet have any concrete idea of what's wrong, where, and how badly, with the chick and my stance on splints is 'only if absolutely necessary' --- quite often they're more risky than just letting the chook heal in a restricted place.

If a splint goes wrong, it goes very wrong. Irrevocably wrong, in many cases, i.e. might as well cull the animal kind of wrong.

Without a very clear idea of what's wrong I can't suggest anything much. I would give it more time in the sling, for about a week, or two, and then you'll see probably much more clearly where a splint needs to go, and what sort, if a splint is still needed. I think perhaps a corrective foot brace may be needed in a week or so, but again I really can't suggest anything without a better idea of what's wrong. If you can get photos of it in its sling, this would help.

I've never seen an injury or deformity just like the one this chick has, so if it stood up for a bit after some time in the sling, whereas pre-sling it was unable to stand at all, I expect enough time spent in the sling will do the job. It will correct the rotation over time as its muscles strengthen, in all likelihood.

Best wishes.

 

[landonjacob]

::UPDATE::
Thanks CHOOKS4LIFE for all your help and support. The chick DID make a recovery, much to my surprise.

It's not a full recovery (see lower pic, leg still sits behind sometimes), be he can walk around, fly, eat, drink, and play with the other chicks like there's no issue! Pretty sure he's a cockerel. Seems to be on the top of the pecking order even though he's had that minor deformity.

Another oddity I've noticed is that a few feathers on the wings lay very out of place (see first pic). Could this somehow be related to the previous injury?

Thanks again!





Below an older picture of the "split" we used to fixed the leg. We are thinking it must have been dislocated or something similar. Not your regular crooked leg scenario (as can be seen in the original post).

 

[chooks4life]

::UPDATE::
Thanks CHOOKS4LIFE for all your help and support. The chick DID make a recovery, much to my surprise.

It's not a full recovery (see lower pic, leg still sits behind sometimes), be he can walk around, fly, eat, drink, and play with the other chicks like there's no issue! Pretty sure he's a cockerel. Seems to be on the top of the pecking order even though he's had that minor deformity.

Great to hear! Thanks for the update, it's always helpful for everyone to know how it ended up, even those trying to give advice always have something to learn.

As for it being on top of the pecking order potentially being a sign of it being male, I think that's probably just overcompensation for the weakness it endured initially, because I don't see any signs of it being a male and it's not uncommon for a chook with a bit of drive to overcompensate like that, whatever gender it is...

But, really, when something occurs to set them back young, they can be very slow to show gender development since their resources were required elsewhere. May be a male for all I know. Lucky chook, whatever it is!

Another oddity I've noticed is that a few feathers on the wings lay very out of place (see first pic). Could this somehow be related to the previous injury?

Thanks again!

That's a very, very unusual misplacement of feathers. Is the underlying anatomy totally normal?

Abnormal feather growth is often found on deformities, i.e. the crests on Silkies as well as crests on ducks, geese are all symptomatic of the underlying deformity --- and I strongly doubt it's just a coincidence that the same hip area that had a strange bulge and a problem just so happens to have abnormal feathers growing from it as well... But, it may actually just be a coincidence.

Many deformities aren't heritable, so doesn't mean your chook shouldn't breed necessarily, but I'd always bear it in mind that it needed help initially, and what its problem was, when breeding it, and always watch for a recurrence or any other unusual problems in its offspring even generations down the track.

Personally, if that were my chook, I'd inbreed it back to its own offspring at least twice (children and grandchildren) so I know for sure whether or not that's heritable.

Below an older picture of the "split" we used to fixed the leg. We are thinking it must have been dislocated or something similar. Not your regular crooked leg scenario (as can be seen in the original post).

It wasn't fully dislocated, if that's what the problem was, because splinting can't help when the leg is not firmly in the socket. Splinting (well, strapping or shackling or similar, really, in this case) can only help when the leg has something to brace against, i.e. the socket, which a dislocated leg does not.

I believe the deformity or injury is in the hip area obviously, and it may have been a partial dislocation, but if it were a true or complete dislocation the leg would have been swinging limply, utterly unusable, and no amount of splinting or any other aids being applied to the leg would have fixed that or made it usable.

How's the hip area feel now?

It may have gone back to normal, hopefully so, but if it hasn't then it's worth keeping in mind that this chook is a likely relapse case. Hopefully not, but always worth remembering, if you observe its dominant nature getting it into perhaps an excessive amount of roughhousing or strife. I rehabbed one cockerel who took 6 months (both legs very messed up) and he relapsed due to weakness combined with fighting other males, but healed again, the second time within a month.

Best wishes.