mallard hatchling with deformed foot?

[Ellie MaeKS]

Just hatched out a baby mallard. It appears perfectly normal Except...it seems that it's Right foot is on backwards from the knee? It seems to go the wrong way. Had a medical doctor friend tell me to break and reset...but THAT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. Any ideas or info. I have spent 2 days trying to find info online to no avail. Help please?

 

[RHRanch]

Try this site, some techniques that may help. https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[Ellie MaeKS]

Thank you. I keep asking questions that no one answers on here, lol. I thought it was personal.

. I just went and looked and it doesn't really talk about a congenital abnormality this must be quite odd? Thanks for helping me though. I am off to keep on lookin. If you think of anything else let me know pleaaaasssee?

 

[Turken123]

I hatched two duck eggs from my female and male rouens and one was just fine but the other had the same problem as yours. She grew at a much slower rate, couldn't walk, swam in circles and at about 3 months old she died. I'm sorry to say but your best bet would be to break and reset. I tried just about everything to help her leg but nothing worked.

 

[RHRanch]

I would cull. I would not, as a layperson break and reset a ducklings leg. Why put it through such trauma?

 

[Ellie MaeKS]

Well...She swims great and is gaining motion in the joint and hip, otherwise she is totally healthy and normal. We eventually took her to our vet and called kstate. Between 2 vets, a RN and a chiropractor the decision was made to do massage as it is an extremely tight tendon that can occur when a chick is in a small shell and may hatch out a bit late. Which is exactly what happened so they did good, but in the wild the poor thing would simply be eaten by some predator once it was caught. (This baby gets around like it has 4 legs, so their work would have been cut out for them, for that nugget-tehehe Thanks for the suggestion but I won't be doing any breaking I am supposed to fix things, lol, not break'em.

a chicken should never break a ducks leg. Thanks for the help.