Please help my chick can't stand up

[Vanessabuffsnsilkies]

I have one of each of these. The spraddle isn't responding to the band aid but she can hop around to the food and water the others don't seem to be rough on her YET. The crooked chick is fluffy and fat eating and drinking. That chick was a late hatchling. Day 24 I believe. I will see how it goes before I decide if culling is the best thing to do

 

[PoultryPedia]

I would NOT leave the band-aid off even half a day if the chick mainly resorts to hopping on one leg when allowed a choice. The danger is that at that young age, the chick is figuring out what works best for getting around. Its brain will program that in and use it all the time for future. Right now it's probably easier for the chick to hop than walk, so that's the method the brain will choose to program in if you give the chick opportunities to just hop around one-legged. The chick won't bother to learn to walk correctly at all because right now that is so much more difficult. If it only has the choice to use both legs (because it's hobbled), that is what the brain will program in, plus the chick will build strength in the best muscles for walking right.

There is a lot of information on treating leg problems on the web page linked in my sig below. Hopefully some of it can give additional help.

kid-n-chickens -- Your method of propping a chick in a container sounds great! I hope you won't mind my adding it to the web page. I appreciate all additional helpful info I hear from others that I can post there. If anyone has other ideas, please do share!

 

[angelleruppert]

I, too, have a chick who won't stand up. I'd like to post a picture, but am not sure how. Anyway, I just had a great hatching -- 90%! Sadly, one little guy just sits there and can't stand up. He doesn't even spread out his toes to stabilize himself. He doesn't walk, just hops a little. Sometimes flops over. We put him in an isolation area so that the others won't pick on him, but I think he's lonely. I'm not sure what to do.

 

[Morag]

I kept my little chick for 12 weeks, it didn't grow, hardly had any feathers, just down. In the end we culled it. It could never have survived in the coop with its big brothers and sisters and although I took it out every day I think it was lonely. The one with the crooked neck has just become a mummy and doing fine.

 

[angelleruppert]

Dear Morag -- thanks for the encouragement. I have him in a small container with a paper towel crumpled up under him. His spirits seem improved being with his brothers and sisters. If he takes a turn for the worse and culling becomes the only option, what is a humane way to kill him? I've never done this before.

 

[PoultryPedia]

angelleruppert - You might try giving your little one vitamins & electrolytes. There are some tips on that & other things to help chicks that have problems walking on my website at PoultryPedia.com.
Best wishes

 

[angelleruppert]

Thank you all so much for your kind and timely advice. The chick eventually started to refuse food and water. It was time; I couldn't see starvation as a humane and viable option. I thought about the scissors, but didn't know if I could do it. Instead, I put him in an airtight plastic box with a cup that contained a small amount of baking soda. I poured 1/4 cup of vinegar into the baking soda and quickly put on the lid.

The carbon dioxide that built up caused the chick's head to jerk back (sort of like when they pip the shell). In a second, he was completely still. I left him in their a while longer to be sure he was really dead.

I know I was right to euthanize him; I hope I did it humanely. If this ever happens again, I will sharpen my scissors and do something about it sooner.

Again, thank you for your kind advice. The reason I originally posted this question was because I thought if I acted right away, I could help him walk and he could have a normal life. Now I realize that sometimes that just doesn't happen. A good lesson for me.

 

[PoultryPedia]

I'm sorry you had to lose one but glad you helped him.

Carbon dioxide can cause some distress for chickens in euthanization so in Controlled-Atmosphere-Killing poultry plants they use inert gases, such as nitrogen or argon in air with a tiny bit of residual oxygen. But I'd imagine that could be quite hard to duplicate in average-person life. I am amazed you knew of an average-person way to create carbon dioxide!! That definitely has to be more humane than some other methods, and you saved the chick prolonged suffering. So good that you helped the chick on to where he needed to go. That can be so very hard.