Squab with bad leg

[taprock]

I had mentioned that the smaller of the 2 one month old squabs was walking all over. What I didn’t notice until yesterday was the larger wasn’t walking because of a leg problem. It possibly wasn’t as pronounced until now. It appears to be a splayed leg although his fibula/tibiotarsus feels like its angled away from his body not toward. Do pigeons get calcium defiency or MBD? I currently have him splinted as you would a chick with splay leg. Any ideas or suggestions besides culling. I know that may be easier but I’d like to reserve culling for last resort as it’s my son’s 4-h birds and first batch of squabs.

 

[WVduckchick]

@sourland

 

[Hokum Coco]

It appears to be a splayed leg

Experience teaches to handle squabs from the first day they hatch.

I help remedy this problem by hooking a "SHORT" elastic between the legs of the bird. In conjunction with two zip ties. Through trial and error twisting the elastic will adjust the length for the desired tension if needed. Check the elastic daily as it has a tendency to break.

The sooner you notice the problem the better the result.

Your squab should improve but I doubt it will make a complete recovery.

You have noticed the problem "fairly early" in a perfect world you will avoid culling.

Best results are realized before the squab develops feathers is my experience.

 

[jak2002003]

Cute pigeon. Great advise from other posters. He should recover OK, but at his age I think the leg will always be a bit out of shape.

No need to cull it!!! It will get about just fine like that... I have had ones with missing toes, missing foot, missing leg.. and they all did very well with no special care.

I even rescued one beautiful white pigeon from the local park.. the poor think had lost BOTH FEET and just got about on the stumps of its legs. It was not able to compete with the feral flock for food, but once at my loft she was fine and got really fat, and even laid eggs and reared 2 healthy squabs no problem. Just had to make sure the floor was solid.. not the wire mesh lol!

 

[LamarshFish]

Perhaps you can research ways to mitigate the affects of a splayed leg?

It supposedly happens more often when the nest does not have a bottom with good traction.

I will second Jak's comment above and say I do not think culling will be necessary even if the issue remains permanent. While I think pigeons may die in the wild, I think they can do just fine in our care like this, they are tough and smart enough birds.

 

[LamarshFish]

Experience teaches to handle squabs from the first day they hatch.

Hokum, if all goes well, and these low temps don't screw it up, I'll have squabs hatched late next week. Do you have any advice on handling my squabs from the get go? What if the parents are sitting on them? Will me moving in and grabbing them disrupt the parents' inclination to sit on the squabs and keep them warm? Is there a time frame that is too long to handle them? Can I bring the squabs indoors to handle them?