- Feb 12, 2012
- 140
- 1
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I had a chick that had a leg band. He started trying to pick at it. That leg had a tiny wound from him picking at it. So I moved it to the other leg, and put some blue-kote on it's injured leg. Put him back in with the others. He immediatly started picking at the other side, and all the other chicks now started going for it's blue-koted leg....uuggghhh. So I got a box so I could seperate this chick. This all happened when it was a few days old. Well the chick started to develope a limp. I kept looking at his leg, trying to figure out what the heck happened to it. I'd move the joints, squeeze them gently to see if it hurt. I figured the wound on the leg was so tiny, it couldn't be from that! Thought maybe he injured his leg when trying to get that leg band off. Well each day he seemed to limp a little more, till finally when he was about a week old, and he couldn't stand on his leg. I'm like, what the heck!!!! So I sat down at the computer with him trying to figure it out. This time I found that the upper leg was swollen. I checking for slipped tenden, and everything. I felt around a little more, and i can feel this pointy thing on the inside of it's leg. I immediately thought it had a broken leg and that it's bone had popped through it's skin, lol. I went to the sink and wet it's fluff down so I could actually see what was going on. Now I can see that it is actually it's umbilical cord wrapped around it's leg!!!!
It was so tight now that the skin had swelled around it. Poor thing, as he grew it just dug into it's leg, and pulled on the part that was still attached to it's belly. I clipped it and pulled it off. He was immediately able to stand again, and now is almost walking totally normal. I will now always check to make sure the umbilical cord is not long enough to wrap around a leg!! Now I figure he was probably pulling at the leg band in the begining, thinking that was his problem. So check those umbilical cords!!!!
And what's with the chicks going after the blue-kote. I thought that was suppossed to prevent that. They almost got all their feet sprayed, but then I thought I could have a bigger problem, lol.
And what's with the chicks going after the blue-kote. I thought that was suppossed to prevent that. They almost got all their feet sprayed, but then I thought I could have a bigger problem, lol.
