Splayed leg, tendon or something else?

[Gulliver]

Hi, one of my 3 weeks old chicks has a problem with its leg.

I don't know if it's a splayed leg, tendon or something else.

I went to put hobbles on it but the right leg seems smaller than the left and looks swollen on the joint, so not sure a hobble would work.

There is no slippy service in the brooder other than the top of the brinsea heater that they have decided to keep jumping on recently.

Does anybody know what I can do?

Thanks.

 

[Isaac 0]

How is your chick doing?

Looking at the picture, I think one could make the assumption the chick is dealing with Perosis (slipped tendon); you can note the definite angulation of the leg, and the swelling near the intertarsal leg joint. Excluding surgical corrections, these birds tend to fair a poor prognosis when it comes to recovery. If caught early, bandaging, or splinting the leg can help correct the problem, but oftentimes it's too late, and doing such a process proves useless, and painful.

If you wish to keep the chick alive and see how it does, I would suggest focusing on ensuring it's on soft grounds, and to get the weight off its legs, consider putting it in a sling. Vitamin supplementation may be helpful considering the etiologic cause is vitamin/mineral-related. If the chick seems to go downhill, it may be best to consider euthanasia.

Here are some other threads on slipped tendons - you can read the outcome for other folks that dealt with the same problem.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threadloom/search?keywords=slipped+tendon&tab=0