My chicken "sling" PIC!

[koakritters]

This is my little rescue chicken, we are not sure what's wrong with her legs, but she can't walk very well. She scoots around on her hocks and flops a lot. The last couple days she's been using her wings to help balance and is stepping on them and getting stuck, I'm worried she'll manage to break a wing(or both!) trying to do this, so this was my solution! I've seen it done someplace before on here.




She's not that happy about it, I had to tape her legs together loosely so she stopped getting out of it! I Don't know what else to do for her, she's been seen by a vet, and other than doing X-rays to see if there's perhaps a pelvis fracture there's not much else to do. I don't have a history of what happened to her unfortunately, she just showed up like this at the local animal shelter and they were going to euthanize her. (Her head was also skinned down to the skull, surgery fixed that!) She's still really young, still peeps, so I'm hopeful I can figure out how to get her walking again!

 

[nurse_turtle]

Mom brought me one of her brown leghorn chicks a few months ago. It looked nearly dead, but I told her I'd see what I could do. Hand feeding and watering, etc. Also, the chick couldn't walk and kept falling over. She was about 5 weeks old. I made her a sling out of a trouser sock and she had physical therapy 2-3 times a day.






She had an impacted crop, so I performed crop surgery on her as well. This is her today...




Make sure your girl's feet can touch the floor and that her sling had a little bounce to it. Her name is "Stubby".

 

[casportpony]

Thank you both! Your pictures have given me an idea on how to proceed with my slipped tendon patient.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Very creative both of you. Good job!

Glad to see people doing everything that they can to save an animal.

 

[Sandyd]

Awwww, The sling is good. Great idea. Stubby looks wonderful all grown up. Do you need to keep them seperated from other chics when you have them in a sling?
Good luck to you koacritters. Keep us updated.

 

[casportpony]

Koacritters, this link had some good info on leg problems: https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[Redriverranchmn]

Thanks for the sling ideas!! I have a crippled chick I need to make one for.

 

[KGBYB]

Could you guys take a look at my post "Dog attack-will she recover" and give me some advice on continued treatment of Miss Goldie? Also, her waddle is flopped to one side. Is that just from being out of the sun for too long?

 

[CynD]

I made the sock sling for my 5 week old "Speckles" today and fits perfect. a bit of a chore to get on, but we finally got it.

A few days ago when I took my flock of 8 from the brooder into an outdoor pen for some outside time, I noticed Speckles was weaving and then landed on her back and couldn't stand up. So I isolated her and tried a variety of slings which did not work because of her being a wiggle worm. I finally resorted to rolling a cloth into a doughnut shape and would place her in the middle. Of course she would get out of that too, but didn't cause the stress. She still eats and drinks well but when ever she stands she shakes and wobbles and eventually falls down. I have also been putting baby vitamins in her water.

So a few questions... How long should she be in the sock sling? Should I take it off for the night?
If the sling is the answer, how long until I see some improvement?

Looking forward to any answers and suggestions.

 

[ryanhodapp]

Good