New hatch with twisted foot (upside down)

[affacat]

Splayed?

 

[JennyHeidewald]

Great job! What you could do with this chick is some gentle physical therapy. Chicks will naturally push up into your hand, so long as it's warm, just like they will under the hen to get warm. If you make sure it has good traction (i.e. on a washcloth or similar) and just cup your hand over the back, i.e. your palm will be over its back. The chick should try to press its back into your hand, sort of like little push ups. And it's good bonding time too. =)

Good idea, I've also put a sock into a coffee cup and popped one into there.
This little chickie will be super attached. I had one hatched a day before the others, only happy when I was cuddling him, otherwise peeping his little head off, and tried to jump out of the brooder. Ended up naming him Ruckus, was a frizzle/polish cross roo.

I am not sure if it is better to wait until tomorrow and see if the legs are better, or try to treat for splayed leg now. Will one night make it really hard to treat later? I've only had the one which turned out ok after all with no intervention. Gentle physical therapy for sure once she dries off.

 

[Shezadandy]

Good idea, I've also put a sock into a coffee cup and popped one into there.
This little chickie will be super attached. I had one hatched a day before the others, only happy when I was cuddling him, otherwise peeping his little head off, and tried to jump out of the brooder. Ended up naming him Ruckus, was a frizzle/polish cross roo.

I am not sure if it is better to wait until tomorrow and see if the legs are better, or try to treat for splayed leg now. Will one night make it really hard to treat later? I've only had the one which turned out ok after all with no intervention. Gentle physical therapy for sure once she dries off.

Yes, this chick may well become very attached with what we call 'Stewie" syndrome, if you're a Family Guy fan it's the episode where Stewie endlessly yells 'mom mom mom mom mom'. =)

Sounds like it's moving around great now that @affacat has fixed the curled toes. With lots of hatching eggs to get hung up on in the incubator, I don't think I would want to try and do the splay leg hobble for fear that it gets hung up and adds to the predicament.

Just glad it's active and clearly able to walk and wants to move around, even with the taped foot. Hopefully in the morning things will have improved - but if it's still off when they move to the brooder, definitely time to address it.

 

[Shezadandy]

View attachment 3094567View attachment 3094566


Splayed?

It might be. But given that baby is still in the incubator with lots of eggs, I wouldn't do the splay leg fix yet, I'd be too worried about chick chick getting caught around an egg and making a worse problem. Hopefully a night will change some things- the toes should be good to go in a day or so. I would wait to address the splay leg (if things don't improve overnight) in the brooder, and as much as you can just gently put the leg in the right spot and see if you can get push-ups into your hand as exercise and to build the muscle in the right way. It's great that baby is doing laps and clearly able to move around!!!

 

[affacat]

Checked on her late last night (maybe a roo, it is loud and doesn't stop cheaping). It had got out of it's shoe so I made a new one and taped it on better. She had seemed improved already, only curling one toe not the whole foot. Even better this morning after checking.. I'd say one curled toe half the time, a good foot the rest.

However, now my daughter is holding her because we had a second pop out this morning, and curly toes started pecking it pretty roughly so we separated them til we figure out what to do (any ideas?)

We also fed the chickens this morning and found a dead cchick in one broody box. It had been covered a bit ib shavings and must have been dead awhile (stinky) but we somehow never noticed it. We removed it... And put her eggs in the other broody box in case it was intentional ( good idea? Bad?)


Now we are racing around trying to figure out a secondary way to keep this chick warm while we keep her separated from the other for a bit.

Baptism by fire. First hatching curled toes, dead chicks, attacks.... Yikes.

It was nice seeing the other hatch tho. A perfect circle around the egg wass chipped away, nothing like the curled toe one (it was clear she was stuck somehow and couldn't turn)

 

[affacat]

We built yet another mini home for her and put hot bottles, food, water in it. We didn't want to take her out of the incubator so soon but the attack seemed a bit vicious and aimed toward the belly. We may try re introducing her if we can figure out a divider.

 

[Shezadandy]

We built yet another mini home for her and put hot bottles, food, water in it. We didn't want to take her out of the incubator so soon but the attack seemed a bit vicious and aimed toward the belly. We may try re introducing her if we can figure out a divider.

My favorite go-to is the MHP (Momma Heating Pad) - there are as many variations of this as there are people who make them. Those of us that use them like them because it gives the chicks a dark warm place where they can rest, much like under a hen.

Boy, you save a chick and they turn into a monster! The MHP might help with this too.

What's needed: 1. Heating pad that does not turn off (or has a setting where you can override the automatic turn off function). 2. A frame to hold the heating pad.(see below for what I did) 3. 2 wash cloth or a wash cloth and a small hand towel. 4. an old pillow case you don't mind never using again. 5. zip ties or something else to tie things together.

I used the racks made for holding foil, saran wrap, etc onto the inside of a kitchen cabinet, so 2 of those. There are 2 because it I sandwich the heating pad between them. Should be an easy find at Target or Walmart. I bent the bottom (the part where the foil etc. would sit) out to about a 45 degree angle. The one on the left is how it looks when it's bent out of shape into my frame shape. The one on the right is about how it looks from the store.

Next:

Put the heating pad into the old pillow case, with the cord hanging out the open end.
Put the washcloth down first on what will be the inside facing part of the MHP. My picture is missing this element. Then lay the heating pad on top of the washcloth. Put the 2nd frame on top of the heating pad/wash cloth combo- having bent both frames like the one on the left above.

Then ZIP TIE the living begeeezus out of this thing, so there is no place on the legs where a silly baby chick can stick its head through and get stuck. (see above photo). In the photo below, I took the picture before I fixed the gap between the 2 frame legs. On this one in particular, I ended up using VETWRAP to cover that hole, i.e. I made it so no chick could get their head between the frames.

Next, cover the whole thing in a hand towel. (have a few of these around for easy changing to keep things clean). You want chicks to be able to escape through the sides as well as the front, so there should be a gap on the sides. The BACK of the MHP should slope to the ground. This lets the chick choose how much heat it wants- if it's wanting lots of warmth it will go to the bottom like the chick below with full contact to the back of the heating pad. Having the front taller than the back allows chicks who don't need as much heat to comfortably find their spot.

As I mentioned there are 1000 ways to make one of these out of just about anything you can come up with.

Here's the original thread- many more ways to do it, but the heating pad that won't turn off and a frame that will be strong enough when every chick jumps on top (they will!) ... edited to add: "How to make it taller when the chicks grow" - I use 1x3 scraps first just under the front "legs" of the MHP. Next I use 2x4 scraps under just the front legs. Once they outgrow that, they're usually feathered out and sometimes begin sleeping on top while the pad warms their bellies).

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/

 

[Shezadandy]

Checked on her late last night (maybe a roo, it is loud and doesn't stop cheaping). It had got out of it's shoe so I made a new one and taped it on better. She had seemed improved already, only curling one toe not the whole foot. Even better this morning after checking.. I'd say one curled toe half the time, a good foot the rest.

However, now my daughter is holding her because we had a second pop out this morning, and curly toes started pecking it pretty roughly so we separated them til we figure out what to do (any ideas?)

We also fed the chickens this morning and found a dead cchick in one broody box. It had been covered a bit ib shavings and must have been dead awhile (stinky) but we somehow never noticed it. We removed it... And put her eggs in the other broody box in case it was intentional ( good idea? Bad?)


Now we are racing around trying to figure out a secondary way to keep this chick warm while we keep her separated from the other for a bit.

Baptism by fire. First hatching curled toes, dead chicks, attacks.... Yikes.

It was nice seeing the other hatch tho. A perfect circle around the egg wass chipped away, nothing like the curled toe one (it was clear she was stuck somehow and couldn't turn)

I'd almost lay money that it's a roo - I've never had a pullet hatch first. Except the very happy times when I wound up with 3 girls (happened twice!) ... seems the first is always a boy. Hooray for the foot improvement - keep up with the taping and by tomorrow I bet that part is all good. How's the splay leg part looking?

I'm glad your 2nd egg was a perfect example of how it should go!

Now- part of your problem may well be that the first chick is bored out of its mind in the incubator and needs other things to do- then #2 hatched out and voila! A squeaky toy to beat on! And chicks will ALWAYS peck something red, they love blood. So newly hatched chicks with their umbilical and tender undersides with just barely closed abdomens are perfect targets.

So it's time to build a brooder - above I suggested using the MHP for a heating element - it makes the transition easier (IMO) if you intend to give these chicks to a hen, and even if you don't, I've used it all the way through. It gives everyone a nice dark place to go sleep where they're not subject to being run over and picked on by their awake siblings. It makes a nice 2nd level where they can hang out, which increases the brooder square footage. (I use increasingly larger sizes of boxes for my brooders)

For bully chick - 100% take it out of the incubator. Give it crumbles to start pecking at, and water. Some use mirrors. Some add something red - something else to do to occupy its time. It could be that simple, especially since its been the only chick for a little while.

Don't add the other chick until it is dry and fluffy and able to scoot around, and better yet, if there are 2-3 (dry, fluffy, fully mobile chicks) to add at the same time, that might overwhelm the 1st one enough to change the behavior. This may be a PIA for a day or so, with the 1st baby requiring a lot more attention while its alone.

https://the-chicken-chick.com/how-to-reform-brooder-bully/

or search "bully chick" or "aggressive chick" for other ideas.


As for the dead hatched chick in the coop: Either it hatched before that hen hit her 18-21 days on the nest and she was not ready for it- or she flat doesn't have the instinct for mothering. They can indeed sit on eggs but turn out to be horrible mothers. I even had one once that was great for the first few days- then killed 2 by blows to the head, the first I though might have been a one off accident - but then she killed a 2nd (she was removed and never permitted to brood again) - so I wouldn't trust that hen to mother chicks. It's not impossible that the chick wandered from the nest, but a good hen would keep baby under her.

I've gone neurotic about having broody hens hatch eggs (or adopt chicks). Having had one that pushed the 1st chick out of the nest where I found it cold and almost dead (it died) - then she bolted from the nest never to return ... anyways.

My broody hens that want to hatch or raise adopted babies now have to put up with getting put in a crate for the hatching process, and I have a baby monitor just for these occasions. If they reject the crate experience (get up from the nest) they don't raise chicks. I bring the crate into the house, I put them somewhere they're within hearing range of me - because the sounds they make usually tell the story. When an egg starts to hatch and the chick starts to peep, she should be talking back to the chick, and attentive. The incubator and brooder are always on standby in case of rejection or other issue.

Same with hens being given chicks to adopt. I start (always at night) with one chick, and I'm out of sight but within easy rescue range. But that's just me --- back when I had my first broody, I started off blocking off an area for her in the coop and letting her hatch out there. She did great. The next one did well too. But too many problems for my risk tolerance after that. And my knees aren't fond of hourly trips up and down the stairs to check on things in the coop.

 

[affacat]

Had a spare minute, we went out and got yet another heat lamp (before I saw above posts about making something DIY). He is currently by himself in the brooder with hot water bottles and towels.... Soon to be another actual brooder.

We will soon be set up to hatch far more chickens that we likely ever will.

But it could come in handy, I'm hoping to breed our turkey poults. We were also planning on breeding half our meat chickens but were advised against it, that it's better to just buy meat chicks due to them not always living long or laying eggs.

 

[Shezadandy]

How's twisted baby foot doing today?