Week-old poult amputee

[MikeG]

Help. Noticed one of my two-week old black spanish poults was missing a leg this morning. Its gone, clean, just below the knee. I hadn't noticed it before but it didn't look that fresh. She seems to be hopping around alright. Applied some antibiotic ointment but am thinking about prosthetic (pen cap, bamboo skewer)? Or is it doomed? Especially when it starts putting on weight...

 

[Buff Hooligans]

I'd be interested to see if anybody else has experienced that, even with a chicken. I would help to know whether to cull sooner rather than later. Good luck.

 

[Plain_View_Farm]

Are your Poults on a wire floor?
Did you find the leg laying anywhere?
I'd be wondering what happened that it got removed and worry about the others in with it first.

David

 

[Friend of Feathers]

My DMIL had a full grown chicken lose one leg from below the knee and she does just fine. She didn't even notice it was gone for quite awhile. Turkeys, in my opinion, aren't as hardy as chickens, but I'll bet she does fine. I wouldn't cull her especially since she's young and will learn to adapt as she grows.

 

[MikeG]

Quote:
David,

The poults were hatched by a black australorp and have been in the brood house until yesterday. It has hay on a solid floor although there are a few gaps. I have 1/2" wire mesh covering a few windows on two of the walls. Its locked up tight at night so I can only imagine it got stuck in one of those gaps. I moved them all yesterday to a mobile coop/tractor for a few weeks. The roost is accessible via ramp and the poult managed to hop up there with the rest of them.

 

[Plain_View_Farm]

I've seen amputees do fine with their peers/siblings... As long as it can get around I'd let it be. I have a Coturnix that got his leg caught in netting during the coldest night this past winter and he lost his leg form the knee down. He hops around and mates with his female just fine. If you try the prosthetic I'd be curious how it works.

David

 

[resthavenfarms]

I had a coturnix quail hen who had one of her legs amputated by a rat. It was pulled completely out of the body cavity, I mean there was a hole you could stick your finger in. She did exceptionally well and I kept her until she died of old age.

 

[joebryant]

What a thread... one-legged chickens hopping around. Gives me the willies.

 

[Tunastopper]

I found one of my roosters hanging upside down with a feed bag string tied around his foot. He lived but his leg is a dead peice of meat. He comes from fighting blood and if a tuff guy. He does fine with one leg. He can plenty handle even the biggest baddest rooster fights with his one leg. He lost the use of that leg about two years ago. The only thing he can't seem to do is breed. He does try.