Urgent, Advice Needed To Splint Silkie Legs!

[Alfred's Mama]

I posted a thread earlier documenting my silkie male Alfred, it turned out he had massive deficiencies because of a condition he has, making it harder for him to absorb nutrients fully, because of it he's now ended up with rickets, his left leg was tuRning in and made walking very difficult for him, now the right one is looking strained. I desperately want to try and straighten them out, I've had him at the vets for meds and multi-vitamins but they didn't give me any help regarding splints, I think the lolly stick and adhesive bandage sound right for what I'm aiming for, but before I attempt anything I need some more information; if it's just the lower leg splinted, do I have to splint the entire leg? if I splint the whole leg will he be able to stand and sit using just his thigh joints/hips or will he need a suspension chair/seat? How successful roughly is splinting for rickets and roughly how long will he need to wear them? I just know if I can get him up and mobile again he'll feel much better, please help asap!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry
this might be informative

 

[Alfred's Mama]

Thanks, I've seen the link before but found a few things I'd missed the first time round, still alot of questions unanswered though

 

[Alfred's Mama]

I'm definitely going to do the hock cushions though, he spends alot of time sitting and pressure on them, the worst affected leg has a very swollen hock, I can't even gently hold that leg straight, it sems as though the bone is literally beginning to curve - I did see a note about not using methods such as splinting for adult birds as the bones have already finished growing, so it would be mostly inefective and even unneccessarily painful, Alfred is 4 months old, is it too late for splints? He's only just gotten like this in the last fortnight, it's shocked and devestated me how fast it's took a hold of him, just 3 weeks ago he was running around chasing flies and hopping up onto my lap, now he's very close to being immobile. Any tips would be very appreciated, does anyone else have a bird in similar condition, or disabled in any way yet can still lead a happy life? I could really use that reassurance right now

 

[Alfred's Mama]

My biggest question is is he too old at 4 months to make a difference, and if there is any kind of surgical option I could take if all else fails, it means the world to me to have him able to walk as much as possible