I had a chick hatch from some shipped eggs that I had purchased. The chick had curled toes and spraddle leg. No amount of taping, bandaids, pipe cleaner, chick chair, etc worked for him. I finally gave up with the remedies and figured that I would play the wait and see game. Wait and see if he looked too miserable and in pain for him to live or if he pulled through. Well, guess what? He survived. He managed to hobble around on his "hocks" and was accepted by his hatchmates. He was incredibly friendly and would happily be held and eat out of your hand. My problem was that I wanted to integrate my "babies" with my older flock and I didn't think the older crew would accept him as graciously as his young hatchmates had. I also worried that living in the coop would eventually cause his hocks to become inflamed and infected. And so, I found a lovely lady who took in disabled critters and I shipped him overnight to her all the way across that country (from Florida to Oregon) at the age of 8 weeks. So, for a very unlucky chick who hatched with some lousy legs and feet, he found himself a lovely home. Sometimes you're born unlucky or is it lucky after all?
