Is this spraddle leg??

[sadie423]

A few days ago I noticed one of my now 3wk old chicks limping. She does put *some* weight on it when walking to limp, she's not hopping on one leg. At first no visable differences b/w the legs. When laying most of the time she lays on both legs, can stretch both out so I don' think it is broken. But she does hold it out at a funny angle a lot. Today it looked at a worse angle and when I picked her up the joint was swollen. Anyway, here are a couple pictures. It is the left leg....one good(?) thing today is that she seems to be trying to grip with the toes on the bad leg which wasn't happening before...they were just floppy.

What do you guys think??
Sarah

 

[PurpleChicken]

Too old for spaddle. She may have had it and this was the result.
I've got a few birds with messed up legs. If she can move around,
eat, and drink then she'll be fine.


If it gets worse there are diseases that cause leg problems so watch her
close.

 

[speckledhen]

That appears to be a slipped tendon. I've only had one chick like that and it happened at about three weeks old. We elected to put him down, being a cockerel. Not sure if you can splint it or not.

 

[teddiliza]

That looks exactly like what's wrong with my littlest black chick! Its resting alot, and I've been putting it near the water frequently so it doesn't have to walk far for it, it just has to walk back to the warm spot past the food, and hopefully eat a bit on the way back to the warm spot.
It's getting better, and although still somewhat lethargic, it's not letting the other chicks push it around as much.

Let me know how it goes! Mine had the same swollen and red/hot joint in its leg, but it seems to be getting better. Glad I gave it a chance. I hope yours recovers.

I hope it ends up being a female so my husband won't threaten to eat it after all its been through.

Here is a pick of it being 'herded' by a bigger chick.

Teddi

 

[dozen chickens]

We had a roo that looked similar, and it ended up being what we thought was some sort of vitamin deficiency. Ours didnt have any swelling though. We kept him seperate from the others and made sure he ate/drank frequently and we tried our hardest for MONTHS! Finally, when the heat arrived it was too hard on him and we ended up putting him down. I think we may have had a better chance if we started him on the vitamins younger, but we didnt know. We gave him the poly vitamins for babies.

 

[Dodgegal79]

I had a duck do that. Slipped tendon is cause by vitamin deficiency. It can't be fixed from my understanding. I had to put the duck down. She was about 3 months old when it happened. I only had the one do it but she was having a hard time getting around, she had a slow start. Make sure to give the other little ones some supplement.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm not 100% convinced that it's always caused by a vitamin deficiency, unless there is some genetic component in a particular chick that prevents it from absorbing vitamins properly. I have only had the one chick in all my birds Ive ever hatched that got a slipped tendon and they were all raised on the highest quality feeds with extra protein added. If it was a vitamin deficiency, I'd expect more to have had it over the course of the years I've been raising chicks. Just saying there is probably another cause of which we are not aware. The result is the same, however, and not usually a good outcome.