options for a slipped tendon in 9 week old pullet

[mrs2581]

Hi all,
I have a 9 week old pullet who has a slipped tendon. We did not notice it for a while. Tried to correct it ourselves but that did not work out. I took her to the vet today and they said our only options were surgery or to put her down. Even with the surgery there's not a good prognosis. I love this little hen but I also don't want her to suffer. She gets around just fine now by limping but I know once she gets a little bigger things will get a lot worse, infections, sores ect. My husband does not want to pay a couple hundred dollars for a surgery on a $2 chicken that might not even work but I just can't bare to put her down.

Has anyone heard of or tried something else with any success? Are these really my only options?

 

[Shellz]

I'd be interested to hear as well. I just culled my 7 week old cockerel on Sunday with same problem. I've heard somewhere on here that someone had made a chicken 'jolly jumper' to help take the weight off the affected leg. Also feed & water was set up on this thing. If I didn't already have over 70 chickens of differing ages requiring my time, I might've tried this. Best of luck to you!

 

[mrs2581]

thank you for your reply. I looked up that thread about making achicken wheelchair. I think we are going to try to make something similar and see how she does. I will post pics as soon as we are done. Any other advice would be wonderful.also I was wondering if anyone thinks I should separate her from the rest of our chickens. They are all the same age around 9 weeks and get along great. No one has been picking on her. I am afraid once she has her wheelchair things might change but I don't want her to get lonely if we put her in a different pen.

 

[ten chicks]

I have treated a slipped tendon in an adult rooster with success. The key is definitely catching it early,but try stretching exercises,to do this gently stretch leg backwards(like bird would while normally stretching)what you are doing is stretching tendon,keep pressing tendon into place(you should feel it snap back into place while pressing on it)you will probably have to do this several times a day,you can wrap tendon to keep it in place also.

With my boy i just kept pressing it back into place several times a day,i did not limit his mobility i encouraged him to walk(constantly grabbing him and snapping tendon into place) b/c i did not want tendon to stiffen up. Took him about 2 weeks to fully recover and now walks perfectly fine with no issues at all.

 

[mrs2581]

okay so here are some pictures of her.I'm having a hard time finding her tendon. she doesn't seem to mind stretching it though. Does this look anything like your's did? Does it look fixable? I am willing to try anything at this point. The vet said the more weight she puts on it the worse things will get. I'm just so confused.

 

[PeckPeckChick]

Hmmm this is interesting I hope you will find a cure!

 

[Shellz]

That looks pretty severe. Mine wasn't that bad, but he was in pain. I can't stand to see an animal suffer. There must be somebody here that can give you some hope.

 

[ten chicks]

No,my roosters leg was not anything like your girl. Do a search on Perosis,it is thought to be a deficiency of mineral manganese and/or vitamins choline,nicotic acid,folic acid,these are just a few. These deficiencies can cause the tendon to slip resulting in twisted leg and usually affects only one leg. Whether giving any of these vitamins will help at this stage,i don't know.


My roosters slipped tendon was from an injury.

 

[Shellz]

No,my roosters leg was not anything like your girl. Do a search on Perosis,it is thought to be a deficiency of mineral manganese and/or vitamins choline,nicotic acid,folic acid,these are just a few. These deficiencies can cause the tendon to slip resulting in twisted leg and usually affects only one leg. Whether giving any of these vitamins will help at this stage,i don't know.


My roosters slipped tendon was from an injury. 

Yes, that's all true. Do you think it could be genetic though, if only one chick out of say...10 has this?

 

[mrs2581]

Thanks for the info. Did a little research and it definitely sounds like perosis might of caused the tendon issue. The vet called today and said she wants to give our pullet some anesthesia and try to manipulate her tendon back into place. I'm taking her in Saturday morning. I know we might not be successful but this sounds better than the other 2 options I was given. She does not seem to be in pain yet or suffering at all. We decided that if that happens we will put her down