Trisseh
Duck-duck-chicken!
I thought I would document this little ones progress here. Some background:
Golden Crele Legbar, hatched from a shipped egg. Hatched on her own on July 9/20. The only egg to hatch, her egg mates both had issues of their own upon eggtopsy. The one was DIS, had membrane constricting the yolk. The other was struggling to hatch, so attempted to assist only to find a deformed chick with a severe underbite and completely absent eyes. The eyelids were normal, but no globes existed.
Appeared normal when removed from the incubator, fluffed up and placed into the brooder.
All of my chicks/ducklings are brooded the same way, with a MHP, straw, and paper towel over top for the first couple of days until they figure out the whole food thing.
2 days later, July 11, noticed the chick was not coming out from under the MHP, and when attempting to move was dragging itself with its wings. It would also fall back on its hocks.
removed the chick from the brooder and based on how the chick was attempting to move, appeared to be a splay leg issue. So hobbles went on.
after applying hobbles, the legs had an obvious rotation outward from the body. Gave the chick 24 hours in hobbles in case they corrected the issue. They didn’t. The only benefit to the hobbles was that the legs weren’t able to “frog leg” when she tried to move.
So back to the drawing board.
It appeared by this time that she had one obvious slipped tendon on the right leg, with the potential on the other leg to follow suit. It was still in place but a lot more mobile then it should be. So the right leg was fully extended behind the chick, the tendon rolled back into place, and the leg wrapped in an extended position. The other leg was treated similarly but without having to replace the tendon.
She was then placed in a chick chair and left for an additional 24 hours.
This chair was slightly too short and her toes dragged on the bottom, so a different chair was made and the heating pad arranged so that she could still contact it but not be too hot. She has bottle caps for water and food dishes and figured out how to eat and drink from them easily. At first she would only eat from my hand but once she realized the food was right there, she’s voracious.
By this time it was July 13. That evening, the wraps were removed and her legs reassessed. They were stiffly hyper extended but a short time spent ogentle ROM exercises soon loosened them up and her legs now bend normally. Stiffly, but straight enough.
Back into the chick chair she went, to allow her to move her legs freely without weight bearing. About 4 hours later, she was taken out and is able to stand, although her balance is nonexistent.
She can take steps as long as she keeps her centre of balance over her legs, and she’s learning. I’m not sure where she’ll go from here but I’m hopeful that she will recover at least somewhat and I don’t have to cull her.
if she recovers enough to be able to get by with some help, well, I guess I’ll have a house chicken
I’ll update in a couple of days with how she makes out.
Golden Crele Legbar, hatched from a shipped egg. Hatched on her own on July 9/20. The only egg to hatch, her egg mates both had issues of their own upon eggtopsy. The one was DIS, had membrane constricting the yolk. The other was struggling to hatch, so attempted to assist only to find a deformed chick with a severe underbite and completely absent eyes. The eyelids were normal, but no globes existed.
Appeared normal when removed from the incubator, fluffed up and placed into the brooder.
All of my chicks/ducklings are brooded the same way, with a MHP, straw, and paper towel over top for the first couple of days until they figure out the whole food thing.
2 days later, July 11, noticed the chick was not coming out from under the MHP, and when attempting to move was dragging itself with its wings. It would also fall back on its hocks.
removed the chick from the brooder and based on how the chick was attempting to move, appeared to be a splay leg issue. So hobbles went on.
after applying hobbles, the legs had an obvious rotation outward from the body. Gave the chick 24 hours in hobbles in case they corrected the issue. They didn’t. The only benefit to the hobbles was that the legs weren’t able to “frog leg” when she tried to move.
It appeared by this time that she had one obvious slipped tendon on the right leg, with the potential on the other leg to follow suit. It was still in place but a lot more mobile then it should be. So the right leg was fully extended behind the chick, the tendon rolled back into place, and the leg wrapped in an extended position. The other leg was treated similarly but without having to replace the tendon.
She was then placed in a chick chair and left for an additional 24 hours.
This chair was slightly too short and her toes dragged on the bottom, so a different chair was made and the heating pad arranged so that she could still contact it but not be too hot. She has bottle caps for water and food dishes and figured out how to eat and drink from them easily. At first she would only eat from my hand but once she realized the food was right there, she’s voracious.
Back into the chick chair she went, to allow her to move her legs freely without weight bearing. About 4 hours later, she was taken out and is able to stand, although her balance is nonexistent.
She can take steps as long as she keeps her centre of balance over her legs, and she’s learning. I’m not sure where she’ll go from here but I’m hopeful that she will recover at least somewhat and I don’t have to cull her.
if she recovers enough to be able to get by with some help, well, I guess I’ll have a house chickenI’ll update in a couple of days with how she makes out.
