Squashed chick :(

[Peedrr]

Hi all,

New to Backyard Chickens and to hatching chicks. Our first-time mum has done a wonderful job incubating the littl'uns and all 5 have now hatched. We left her alone for 24 hours while they were hatching and have just discovered that one of the chicks appears to be squashed. Her legs are splayed out and she is unable to walk although the legs do move.

A quick search on here suggests that this can happen but we're not sure what our best course of action is. We think her chances of survival are nil as she is unable to get to the food unassisted. Unless you guys can suggest otherwise, we are assuming there is nothing much we can do for her. If that's the case, what would be the kindest way to end her suffering?

Many thanks for any advice.

 

[sumi]

@SpeckledHills may be able to advice you on how to fix her leg problem, depending on the severity. I suspect she may be suffering from a bad case of splayed leg, more info on that here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=splayed+leg

If you can't do anything to help though, here are some suggestions for humane euthanasia: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/208641/how-to-humanely-euthanize-a-chicken/0_30

Good luck and fingers crossed!

 

[Peedrr]

Sumi we can't thank you enough for your response. Having now read all about splayed leg, that seems to be the problem. We completely misdiagnosed the problem and as soon as I was searching for the right terms, we found all the help we needed, including posts by @SpeckledHills

Our chick is now sporting a very fetching bandaid splint and, thankfully, I haven't even clicked on the euthanasia links

Thank you for saving a little life today.

 

[sumi]

That is great news! Please keep us posted of her progress? Speckledhills it seems hasn't been on yet, but I'm sure she'll pop in to check as soon as she gets the tag alert and will be happy to see her older posts helped