Silkie with broken leg

[NatureHouse17]

Hello. Three weeks ago a 1 year old silkie was brought to me with a broken leg. She has both fibula and tibia broken and the tibiotarsal joint shows increased laxity. I've put splints on the injured leg, including locking the hock joint at a ~90° angle.
So, there are 3 weeks since she has splints; 12 days ago she started to use the leg again, scratching and putting it into the ground,although she seems reluctant to use it fully and prefers to hop...

My question is, should I take off the splints? Don't know if leaving them longer will make much difference. She obviously cannot use the hock joint (because is fixed with the splints) and I'm thinking it might end up completely stiff.

Any advice is much appreciated

 

[sourland]

If the splints are not bothering her, I would be tempted to leave them on a bit longer. The hock joint may become frozen, but better that than another break. Good luck with her.

 

[coach723]

I would keep the splint on at least another week, you really want to make sure that bone is knit before putting too much stress on it. Can you see a callus forming where the break is? There is a picture in this thread of a healing break with a callus, scroll down:
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2014/02/BrokenLeg.html

 

[NatureHouse17]

Thank you for the replies. I'll leave them a bit longer then.
Interesting thread; I cannot see a callus forming on her leg though, but we'll see. Don't think she'll recover fully as it was a pretty nasty injury, but at least if she could walk properly at the end.