two day old chick with weird legs

[ausash]

I had a chick hatch on Monday early am and it had both its feet where they were curled under and one leg seemed to want to lay more towards the back kind of like it was doing splits. Well we splinted the feet thinking that it might help the problem, we had done this before and it worked. Well we took the splints off and one foot is better the other not too much and legs are still split like well splits. Also when it gets aggravated and starts chirping alot when I mess with its legs I can feel and kind of hear a clicking kind of noise down by the legs. Does anyone have a clue what this is and how to fix it. The poor cute little baby is eating and drinking a little (crumbles and mushed up egg yolk) I feel so bad for it and do not want to give up on it until I have tried everything so any advice no matter how small would really be appreciated.

Thanks,
Michelle

 

[peeps7]

My cousin had a chick that had something like that, When the chick grew up one of his legs was bent all the way backwards. He couldn't use the leg but he got around just fine on one leg. If you can't fix the leg DO NOT KILL HIM OR GET RID OF HIM!!! If you can't fix his leg and don't want him email me and I'll take him.

 

[Newchickenmom&kids]

It's called spraddle leg or splayed leg....here is some info on it and what to do:

http://www.bluequaker.com/Art-037.htm

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKRaisingChicks.html

 

[bayouchica]

Here's another link http://www.poultryhelp.com/spraddle.html

Put the chic in a place away where he won't get picked on, with food & water close by. You may want to put some towels rolled up to help with baleance.Oh yeah, you'll need to put some marbles or rocks in the waterer so the chic doesn't drown by accident.
Good luck, Miriam

 

[ausash]

Thank you all for the information. I did look up spraddle leg but was not sure if that was it since the legs do not go out sideways but the one leg goes back towards the rear end. Peeps: don't worry this baby so long as it is eating and growing will be kept alive by me any way possible as I just can not bring myself to do that to a otherwise healthy baby. We are going to try to do the spraddle treatment for the legs anyway and see if it helps at all. It is that clicking noise that I keep hearing that bothers me the most. Again, thanks for all the info. By the way he is in a box all by himself inside the brooder with his own food and water and the water is not deep enough for him to drown in.

Michelle

 

[serendipity22]

I hope you figure this out. I've got a little blue marans baby that is doing the same thing. The leg bends the wrong way and absolutely breaks my heart to see because he's eating and doing great otherwise. I've tried to splint it but so far, my efforts have been in vain. I'm really trying to decide what to do next. i just hope that the poor thing isn't in pain but he doesn't seem to act like it bothers him.

Good luck...

 

[ausash]

Just wanted to let everyone know that we did splint little Chirpy's legs and that only helped marginally so when we took off the splint we let it walk around a little bit and it seemed okay so we put it with the rest and it has been fine since then (two days ago). It is walking, eating and drinking. The leg still extends a little behind it but it looks like it will just become accustomed to walking that way and will be fine and of course it is the runt due to not eating very much the first couple of days of its life but I am sure that it will eventually catch up. Now just hoping it does not turn out to be a rooster after all that I have put into it.