Splayed leg?

[Fuzzybird1]

I have 2 emus that are nearly 3 months old now. One of them has had a slightly turned out leg since she was about 4 or 5 weeks old. I took her to a vet that raises rheas a few weeks ago. He told me that it wasn't bad at all and that her ligaments and joints felt good and she should be fine. He felt it wouldn't turn out any further. Now a few weeks have passed and it is noticeably worse to me. Everything I read says there is nothing to be done and we will end up having to put her down. Has anyone had a bird survive with this? I hesitate to take her back to the vet and have her suffer through treatment if it is going to end tragically anyway. Do I just let her live whatever time she has or will she have a better chance with some treatment? I'm hoping some of you with experience can please give me some advice. This is my first experience with this and I am not sure what would be best for my bird.

 

[Clucksworth]

Emus do not die because they have splayed legs, people have their emus put down because they don't feel that the emu will have a good healthy life. Many people get their emus put down because they are concerned for the welfare of their emu and believe that it is cruel to keep an animal in a condition that won't allow it to indulge in it's natural instincts.
Emus are very active animals and love to run and play, if you feel that your emu is not able to live happily and enjoy it's self, maybe you should consider putting it out of it's misery. If the emu was in the wild it would not have been able to keep up with it's siblings as they grew stronger and faster and would naturally perish from predation.

Unfortunately there is no way of curing splayed legs in an older chick as their bones have set solid and muscles have started to grow around the joints. If you were wanted to correct it's legs the vet would have to operate on the bird and pin it's legs back in place or break the legs and re-set them. This would take take a long time for the animal to recover from and would mean that it wouldn't be able to walk properly for a long time, and may never be properly cured of splayed legs. Which would be an extremely expensive course of operations and it may not be in the bird's interest. ( This is why many people often opt to simply having their chick put down if it has splayed legs, as it is less stressful for the bird and doesn't allow it to suffer unnecessarily).

Other people will probably disagree with me, but personally I would have the chick put down so it doesn't suffer any longer, because there is no point in keeping on to the chick in till it becomes incapable of doing day to day activities. In my opinion it would be unfair on the emu to keep it any longer, especially as you have noticed how it's condition is deteriorating.

However if you think that the emu's condition isn't going to effect it's day to day life and that it is living happily, just let it live the end of it's days

I hope this has helped, and I am sorry I couldn't offer you a positive answer to your emu's condition

Clucksworth

 

[Clucksworth]

If you are still unsure of what you think would be best for your bird, maybe you should consider taking it to a different veterinary clinic to get it looked at by a different vet. They may have a different opinion to the other vet and may be able to offer you will some different advice

 

[Fuzzybird1]

As long as she is having quality of life I see no reason to cut her life short right now. She still gets around well, can run, and seems to be having a good time. My question is, has anybody had any luck with a bird surviving or getting treatment so that it actually could survive?

 

[Fuzzybird1]

As long as she is having quality of life I see no reason to cut her life short right now. She still gets around well, can run, and seems to be having a good time. My question is, has anybody had any luck with a bird surviving or getting treatment so that it actually could survive?

 

[Clucksworth]

A bird can survive having splayed legs as long as you can feed it and give it water, anything that can't move around can be fed and watered to be kept alive. The bigger issue behind keeping an emu in that way ( obviously not at the moment - but when it gets larger), and if it is ethically right to keep an animal in that condition that means that is has a bad quality of life.

 

[Clucksworth]

There is no treatment for splayed legs. The bird will start to suffer as it gains weight as it's body mass is not being supported evenly on it feet. It will also cause more problems within the chicks joints as it grows older as the weight and pressure being exerted on the chick's joints isn't being exerted in the correct places, this will give the chick an early case of arthritis and inflammation of the joints which will cause it pain in movement and will make it suffer unnecessarily as it grows larger.

 

[ES Emus]

As long as she is having quality of life I see no reason to cut her life short right now. She still gets around well, can run, and seems to be having a good time. My question is, has anybody had any luck with a bird surviving or getting treatment so that it actually could survive?

we have (unfortunately) not had any luck with the treatment of a splayed leg. I read somewhere once that the longer you keep an emu with a spayed leg, the bigger hole that you have to dig to bury it, which I though was a very blunt way of putting it. That is until we tried to raise a bird to maturity and it was very heartbreaking. Ours eventually reached a point where it continually fell over and would try to stand up only to keep kicking the splayed leg out to the side. It reached the point where it could not stand up at all and we had to put the feed and water in front of it because it could not get around. It was very pathetic. As long as your bird is able to get around, there is always a chance, but try not to get too attached to it, that is the hardest part.

 

[Fuzzybird1]

Have you ever had one that could continue to use it's leg as an adult? Or have they all ended up unable to stand? Have you ever done any treatment? Thanks so much for letting me know of your experience.

 

[ES Emus]

Have you ever had one that could continue to use it's leg as an adult? Or have they all ended up unable to stand? Have you ever done any treatment? Thanks so much for letting me know of your experience.

We have only had experience with two chicks that developed splayed legs, one was from South Carolina and one was from Pennsylvania. Both had to be put down, one at three weeks of age and one at about two months of age. We talked with several vets and even tried taping their legs together when they were chicks but we had no success.