my chicken was born with backwards legs

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

Maby you could turn a little bit and splint it, then more and more until its normal?

 

[sharol]

How old is she? She looks a bit to big to try the splint thing. As I understand it, any serious modification has to be done in the first week or so.

 

[carolina chicky]

I just came across your post and I wanted to share the story of my rooster "Spike" who had this exact thing wrong with his legs. It started when he was a few days old and got progressively worse, until he was grown...then the leg was completely backwards. I took him to the vet, and they told me that the only way to correct this is through surgery to place a pin in the hip/leg and keep it straight. But, he says most birds don't make it through surgery. He said that the leg wasn't painful to Spike (which I agree with because he doesn't seem to mind when you move it around). I mainly wanted to make sure that he wasn't in constant pain, because I thought I needed to cull him.
I decided not to cull him, and in fact ordered him some chicken diapers and made him a house pet. The older he got, the better he learned to cope with the leg. He would use the backwards leg for balance and kind of propel off it and hop with the other. The vet told me that he would learn how to use the backwards leg and that he would need special attention, but he would be fine.
I had him for 2 years, until one day I decided to put him in a little chicken coop I had built for just him, to get some fresh air....and dogs broke into the coop and killed him (along with 3 other chickens in another coop).
Anyway....I just thought I would tell you my story with this same situation. I don't know if it was right to let him live that way, but he seemed to be happy, and to be honest he could move as fast as a normal chicken, lol.
Since he couldn't perch like a normal chicken, he decided the back of the recliner was the best place to sleep, maybe because it gave him a way to perch and have somewhere to rest his backwards leg.
Btw, I tried all sorts of splints, everything you can imagine, and nothing helped. The vet told me that this kind of problem couldn't be splinted.
I hope yours will be okay and I wish you luck with her

 

[carolina chicky]

My boy "Spike"

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

Sorry about your sweet pet. :| Great story

 

[Uniontown Poultry]

Is it splay leg? I have seen some bad cases of this in chicks where it looks like one leg is so far splayed out to the side that it's almost backwards. If it looks like the leg can be manipulated into place, and the other leg kept in place, it may be possible to tie the legs in their proper place using hobbles, maybe splint the feet to straighten the ankle joint, and put her in a chick chair or sling for a few days or weeks. The older she is, the more time she'll need in hobbles/chick shoes/ chick chair or sling (search these terms for details on how you make them) to correct it, and the less chance it will be successfully corrected. It's hard to do this, as it doesn't seem anyone can get the hobbles, shoes and sling/chair height right on the first try, and it's hard to see your chick trussed up like this for days or even weeks (I let mine out of the sling/chair to put weight on their feet at least 30 minutes a day, always watching to right them as they fall over). If it's young, it will peep for companionship and you may have to make the hospital box or cage big enough to accommodate a healthy friend. And even if you attempt all this, your chick may end up being able to walk but limping for the rest of its life, particularly if it's not a fuzzy peep anymore. So it's 1) difficult, 2) hard to put your chick through, and 3) may not work, or may only work to make your chick just able to walk around on its own, but - if you are really attached to a chick, and hate to just cull her outright without doing everything you can to save her (a chick that can't walk does not live), this is an option that you may want to consider. There's lots of posts relating to chick chairs, slings, hobbles and chick shoes, as well as splay leg (also called spraddle leg), that may contain enough info to help you decide what's best to do for your chick.

 

[carolina chicky]

With my chicken "Spike", the vet said that his hip socket was too shallow to keep the hip joint in the proper place. He said the only way to fix it would be put a pin in there to hold it, but surgery wasn't recommended for a bird as they rarely make it through. I took him when he was quite young because I tried the braces, splints, everything I could find, I tried with him and nothing seemed to work. When he was a baby, we could turn the leg and kind of "relocate" it to the proper place, but when we let go it would just turn right back out. The vet told us he had seen this before with chickens, but never as bad as it was with Spike. He said that Spike would learn to move with the leg, and he was right! He was hard to catch when he didn't want to be caught, lol.
He also figured out out to scratch his head, etc. At first he would try to use his backwards leg to scratch but couldn't, so eventually he figured out that he could lay on his side and use his good foot to scratch.
I hope you can find something that will work for your chick, good luck

 

[HenFriend]

Once had a hen hit by a car, the vet set the leg in a plaster cast and although she could never use it properly after she soon learned to regain her balance. She could hop really fast and keep up with the others fine so as long as your chick doesn't seem in pain or distress I don't see why it can't adapt.