Official BYC Poll: Special Needs Poultry

[maeflower1992]

How does she get around? How do you take care of her? We have a chicken without legs too and it's juts so hard... would love to hear about your story...

Here are some current photos of our girl.

 

[RnRRidgerunner]

I got 6 ISA browns two weeks ago and noticed a week ago that the smallest chick had her right foot out to 90 degrees and even backwards. She gets around pretty good by flapping her wings too. She has been eating and drinking well and even gets on a short roost I made for them in a small coop/brooder area. Today I made a splint that can rotate out of a Popsicle stick and a scrapbook brad. I then wrapped the upper leg and lower leg separately with self stick tape and taped both pieces to her leg. The others tried to help remove it upon putting her back in the coop and even were pecking her toes. I had to remove her from them and am hoping she gets used to it and maybe heals some. She mostly just lays there and cheeps. Otherwise my only option I see is to remove it and let her hobble around on her own. Any ideas??

 

[skeeeter]

I've had quite a few handicapped featherpeople pass through here:
1. My wife rescued a stray muscovy duckling from a stray dog, we found out the dog had broken both her wings. We had to put her in an isolation coop til she healed. She was never able to fly but lived a happy productive life for years til she was stolen.
2. Noticing that a small light colored chick we had gotten in a group we'd bought didn't seem to be thriving, we took him out into isolation and discovered he had wryneck. Alone, he seemed to want to live, eating and drinking well. The kids didn't let him get lonely and we turned him loose after he was fully feathered, to sleep in our breezeway/carport. He grew up well, drinking water with the dog and getting fed before the other fowl were turned loose for the afternoon. finally, when he was three yrs old, he got stolen.
3. My wife loves chickens, she got an opportunity to buy some Brahma chicks and ended up with two beautiful giant fluffy hens, a Dark and a Coronation. By and by, something happened to the Coronation hen and she became blind, first in one eye, then in the other as well. Now I had a Blind Hen on hand. At first she refused to eat, so I had to force feed her. She hated that. I also lightly groomed her a bit, with a soft cloth. Slowly, she began taking care of herself and the I noticed she could find the waterer alone. Shortly, she no longer needed forcefeeding because she figured out how to eat out of hand or out of a cup being held for her.

 

[JRies]

The white girl in this photo had all her toes bopken got better was great till this spring when I lost her.