Limping 12 week old chick

[lishah2000]

I noticed the limp first thing one morning. Seems to be a pattern. Limping in the morning, somewhat better during the day, but limping again at night. Don't see or feel any injuries, but it has lots of foot feathering.

It's not getting picked on at all, but doesn't seem to be healing. Today I moved it into a cage inside the coop and put vitamins in the water. I hope maybe some rest will be good.

Is this the best thing to do? The mother hen is currently broody again (on nothing) inside the coop, so it won't be alone and the other chicks do spend quite a bit of time in the coop.

Thank you.

 

[LynneP]

Might be that your chick is growing so fast it need more vitamins. You can use baby vitamins (no added iron) or poultry vitamins. There's always a chance it's a mild trauma but it rather sounds like fast growth and the need for more nutrients than the feed can sometimes provide. Watch the others, especially the bigger ones- all will benefit from the vitamins at any rate!

Of course watch the flock closely- just in case!

 

[lishah2000]

Thank you for the reply. I started it on the baby vitamins yesterday and will start the others on them today and keep a close eye on the others. I only have three banty hens and their chicks in this coop run. The rest of the flock is in another coop/run.

Should I add anything else to the feed to help with this? They have been eating start and grow, but I started giving them flock raiser about three weeks ago. They also get a little scratch in the morning and some greens probably every other day.

Thank you.