Silkie chick with a broken leg?

[Silkie-Guinz]

Hi,
We have a buff silkie chick that's almost eight weeks old now, when we got her she was six weeks, and we named her Minnie, and we also got another buff Silkie named Tweety the same day, who she is very attached to..

a day after we got her, we noticed her left foot was twisted. We contacted the person we got Minnie from, and they said they have raised chickens with crooked feet before, and if we wanted to keep her, we could. We decided to keep her and see how she does..

She got around pretty well, eating and drinking. To walk, she just was slower, and usually stayed in the corner to avoid being knocked over by the guineas who were just getting better at flying.

But after she had been with our younger guineas, once they got around her size, We noticed that it wasn't just her foot anymore, it was the whole left leg, and she was dragging behind her. And so we took and put her in a wash tub we have, and let her have her own food and water, along with her buddy, Tweety with her because she is very attached to him so she wouldn't be alone.

And now, she flaps her wings to get around, and she is able to move her left leg, she just can't really walk on it. it's just we think it's broken at the joint, so we don't know if we could spint it. And on her right foot, her toes on that foot are crooked. If we sit her in our lap, it looks like she's doing a split.

I just don't want her to be in pain.

We will be taking her to our vet here soon to see what he may think, but I wanted to check on here, as well.
She is the sweetest thing, out of all our birds, she is the most kind, she is very gentle and most of the time quiet. If you talk to her, she'll cock her head at you like she understands. And We have gotten attached to her.

What can we do about the leg? would she be okay if she needs it amputated? What can we do about her crooked toes?

We don't want to have to put her down, but if she's in pain, and would be better off, I guess we will have to. But we want to give her the best chance we can before it comes to that.

Thanks!


This is Minnie.


Her left leg.


on her right foot, her crooked toes.


My baby, Minnie.

 

[tiki244]

The crooked toes will not cause a problem. You could splint her leg with possible success, may still be a little crooked if her leg is broken. I certainly hope that it is not mareks, as it sounds like some of the symptoms. If you go to the vet make sure you ask him about mareks. Good luck and best wishes. To sweet Minnie

Was she smaller than the other chicks you got?

 

[Chihuahuamom444]

My silkies had the Exact same problem, Ive never had that before but I swear by polyvisol baby vitamins, no iron, after a couple doses and they were doing great, I had one kept relapsing and I am adding the vitamins to the water and havent had a prob since. At first put a few drops right into her mouth once a day, Im assuming it is a vitamin deficiency? The one was falling to the side and or dragging his leg and flapping his wings just to balance, it was pathetic

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

My mom says it feels like it is broke sort of at the thigh or under it with a slight twist backwards that is why the leg can't be splint we tried but the top area would not let us it kept the leg facing out so we hope the vet can help.
Thank you so much!

 

[tiki244]

yes I hope so too.

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

Quote:
We are hoping so very much.

 

[robin416]

This is where I say see if a vet will do an x-ray. No sense in trying to guess at what the defect is since it can't actually be seen. It is possible its birth defect and can't be fixed.

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

Okay, today we called our vet office to see if we could bring her in tomorrow evening. But, the vet there said we could bring her on in right then instead, so he could see if he could spint it. So we took her in and when he seen her, he said that he wouldn't be able to splint it with how her legs were...

He took her for X-rays, and was sorta suprised, because on Minnie's left leg, he was expecting it to be broke lower down, instead the X- ray shown that she definitely had a break in her left leg up in the hip I think, and got it dislocated backwards, If I remember correctly... I may be wrong about that though.. I just know that she does have a break in that leg.

Then he said on her right leg, probably from trying to get the left leg under her for awhile, she managed to break that leg a little lower then the left leg, as well. He said he couldn't think of any ways to help her. He said she would probably try to learn to adapt to it, like she already is. So we decided to bring her back home, and see how she does.

He said that the break in her left leg, has already healed by it self, and that she's trying to use it as it is. He said it was either, before we got her that she probably broke it accidently, and the person we got her from didn't notice, or when she hatched she may have twisted it the wrong way. But he said she probably had it long before we got her.

But I still love her, and don't really want to give her up.

If she does get worse, and stops eating and drinking, we will make the hard decision to put her down... But hopefully it won't come to that. I really don't want to do that...

I know this will probably sound silly, but I was totally nervous about taking her.. I mean, I was so nervous for her that my hands were shaking. I just didn't want to hear that nothing could be done, I guess because I've grown so attached to the sweet little chick.

On the ride home, though, she seemed to like watching the cars as they pass.

And thru the whole ride, she was still as sweet as ever, falling asleep a couple times, and pecking at the bedding that had fallen on the towel as I held her, being the goofy little silkie she is...

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

I just wanted to say thank you.

Last night after bringing her home from the vet, when we were changing her to another brooder, I noticed she had some blood in her stool, and I thought I would wait and see how she did in the morning, since she was eating and drinking.

But all this morning, she has been sleeping, and she's not just got blood in her stool, she was just bleeding pretty much... Then she out of no where starting flopping and moving around, like something startled her, so I called my mom over, and took out Tweety, and my mom took Minnie, cleaned the blood off her feathers, and held her in front of our door that was open, rocking her. A few minutes after that, Minnie passed away...

I was upset about it, but we will be naming our flock "Minnie's Flock," after her. And possibly naming a chick after her, as well. And I know that she knew I loved her...

But it still hurts to know she's gone.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I am so sorry for your loss, they really have a special way of getting into our hearts..