Slipped Hock Tendon

[Brooke0430]

Had a small chick hatch out of a little blue egg in the incubator, it was fine and healthy. in the brooder a few hours later i noticed the chick lying down with its foot up over its wing, i tried to get it to move but it would just kinda flop/scoot around and its foot was going up over its wing. I have never raised chickens and never hatched off any babies so this was a first for me. I only realized what was wrong when i picked it up for the second or third time to look at it and noticed a little blood on my hand, got to looking at its legs and the skin was broke open on it hocks and bones were out of place! put some neosporin with pain relief on it and put it in a temp. splint thing i made out of a drinking straw. did some research online and finally found how to do a chick chair, made one and kept it's legs splinted straight over night in the chick chair. gave him a few drops of sugar water b/c he hadn't ate or drank ne thing and put him in his chair back into the brooder with the other chicks. let it out of the chair and took off its splints the next day, one leg was a lot better (not swollen and the skin had closed backed up) so i left the splint off, the other hock was swollen and red so i put a partial splint on it, i cut a piece of straw (about an inch long and the kind you get from mcdonalds or something thats a little fatter) and sliced it down the middle. then i cut the sides and top off of one half of the straw so that one half would wrap around the lower half of his leg and the other half would sit behind his hock. I put neosporin with pain reliever the back side of his hock, lined the straw with some cotton and put it on his leg, then wrapped a piece of a fabric bandaid around the lower part of the straw. I would probably use scotch tape next time b/c the bandaid was a little heavy on his little leg. put him and one other chick in another brooder box and kept that splint on for that day. took the splint off the next day and put him in the brooder with the other chicks, he is doing great! eating and drinking and everything! we were all praying and rooting for the lil guy glad he's doing good. hope this helps someone.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. Thanks for sharing your success story. If you have pictures beofre and after, they may help. Slipped achilles tendon and rotated femur are very hard to treat, and hard for some to recognize, since splay leg is more common. BYC has lot of threads pertaining to these, and this website by a BYC member has some good information: https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[Brooke0430]

Thanks! I didn't get any before pics but I will sit down and make some doodles of the contraptions i made and add them