RIR Chick with a bum leg.

[Maniac Dad]

Okay peeples, here's a question for you. I've got a week old RIR chick with a broken knee joint. Came home that way for the store with a group of 9 other RIR and 5 BR all pullets destined to be layers. I debated about culling when I saw the problem but my daughter wanted to see if see would pull through. So after one week the leg is of little use but it does have blood flow as the foot is healthy in color just malformed. She is eating and drinking and shows all indications of being fine, hops and flaps her way around the brooder. So here's the question; how many of you have had chicks with leg problems and have them develop on to productive laying hens?

 

[debilorrah]

None without treatment. I sounds as if you need to splint the thing so it grows together straight. Oddballs wind up being outcasts in the flock. Example: I have a silkie that has limped from hatch. She is always the last to get to drink, the last to get to eat and always on the outside of the rest of the birds.

 

[Maniac Dad]

I know she'll be an outcast. But could she still be a viable laying hen? Or is it just better off to cull and continue on?

 

[technodoll]

Try splinting the leg (pipe cleaners with gauze and surgical tape or stretchy band-aids work great), like a leg brace.

In a few days you can take the brace off and see if there is any improvement - you could have her lead a normal life if it works!

Nothing to lose

 

[Maniac Dad]

The joint has already calcified. I should have taken care of it on day one, we're at day 14. I didn't expect her to survive the first week. And of course she got all the attention from my 16 year old daughter. So here I am with a bum chick, 9 RIR, 5 BR and 49 cornish x's. I guess we'll feed her out and see what happens......